A delegation of Jharkhand Poultry Association (JPA) on Thursday met state agriculture minister Badal Patralekh and requested him to save the industry that has been hurt by rumours that consuming eggs and chicken can increase the chance of contracting Covid-19.

The delegation headed by secretary of the outfit Amit Kumar requested the minister to issue an advisory countering the rumour.

They also submitted a copy of the advisory issued by the Centre besides the governments of Bihar and Maharashtra clarifying that eating eggs and chicken was safe.

In Jharkhand, there are around 10,000 poultry farmers and the monthly production of chicken stands at around 72 lakh.

On a normal day, the average price of chicken per kg in Jharkhand ranges between Rs 100 and Rs 130.

“Now we are forced to sell chicken at Rs 20 per kg, but even then people are not ready to buy. There are no takers for eggs as well. We have suffered a loss of around Rs 130 crore. The cost of production of one chicken is around Rs 100. The cost of feed is Rs 40 per kg. Now we don’t have the money to run poultry farms,” Kumar said.

The poultry industry also involves soya and maize farmers, feed manufacturers, hatchery owners and medicine and vaccine traders. Three days back, poultry farmers released around 5,000 chickens in the forest area at Barkagaon in Hazaribagh because they were unable to feed them.

In Hazaribagh, a hatchery owner destroyed around 10,000 eggs. In Chatra, chicken and eggs were freely distributed among villagers.