Bangladesh News

A number of unscrupulous poultry sellers in city markets have been putting members of the public at risk of avian flu infection by selling slaughtered sick chickens at low prices.

Prime customers of these pre-slaughtered chickens are makeshift roadside diners, street vendors of cooked food and caterers who deliver food to offices or messes for the low-income group, said a few poultry traders seeking anonymity.

Although no case of human infection has so far been detected, the handling of sick birds without protective gear pose a great threat of spreading the deadly virus as the avian flu, commonly known as bird flu, spreads mostly through physical contact with the infected birds, said experts.

During a visit to Kaptanabazar poultry market a couple of days back in the morning, this correspondent came across a man who was leaving the market after buying two such pre-slaughtered chickens.

Refusing to identify himself, the man said he had bought each chicken for only Tk 30. Considering the regular price of at least Tk 60 apiece, he apparently bought the chickens at a bargain price.

Asked what he does with the chicken, the man without any facemask or gloves said he sells the chicken to “small traders, mostly those who sell boxed meals near the National Stadium and Motijheel commercial area.”

“They [the poultry sellers at kitchen markets] slaughter a chicken when it starts dozing and hang it from a sutli [string] in their shops,” he said.

The man hurriedly left when this correspondent asked him to show the seller who sold the pre-slaughtered chickens to him.

After entering the poultry market at Kaptanabazar, this correspondent did not find any seller who was wearing gloves or facemasks. None of them admitted selling the two chickens to the man either.

Noticing a photographer taking snap of a pre-slaughtered chicken at a shop in the market, a staff of the shop immediately took that off from there.

However, this correspondent noticed several dangling strings in most of the poultry outlets.

Ruhul Amin, a cleaner assigned by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), said, “When any chicken shows the symptom of dying, especially right after they are brought in to the markets, the traders slaughter them immediately and hang them in their outlets for sale.”

Customers of these slaughtered chickens are “poor people, mostly women, who cater low-priced food to messes and food stalls by footpaths in the city,” he added.

He also used to buy and sell the slaughtered chicken, but he stopped the business after his sales dropped due to the recent bird flu scare.

“We know these chickens do not have the disease, but ever since the bird flu scare gripped all, poor people like us are going through difficult times,” said Ruhul claiming that the trade no longer kicks.

Contradicting Ruhul’s claim, a grocer in front of the market said seeking anonymity that the trade of pre-slaughtered sick chicken mostly takes place in the morning.

Khokon, a poultry trader at the market, said the sale of pre-slaughtered chicken has dropped from 50 to 60 a day to 3 to 4 daily in recent times. He insisted that the chickens he sells are not sick and various city restaurants are his clients.

Kulsuma Begum, a boxed meal (Tk 20 each) seller at the eastern gate of the National Stadium, said, “You’ll see pre-slaughtered chicken at Fakirerpul poultry market and the traders there would approach you to buy it. I won’t buy those though they are cheap.”

She also said she has heard that such pre-slaughtered chickens might cause a dangerous disease called bird flu.

Zakir Hossain, a cooked rice vendor in front of Shilpa Bank building, said he buys chickens from Jatrabari poultry market, “but not the pre-slaughtered ones”.

“Some people like me definitely buy those,” he added.

Sheikh Saidur Rahman, Dhaka district livestock officer, told The Daily Star, “Though it doesn’t necessarily mean that the dozing chickens are infected with the bird flu virus, the chance is there. Besides, the sick chicken might have other diseases too.”

“But if the sick birds have bird flu, a person coming in contact with those may get infected with it,” he cautioned.

He said strict instructions have been issued to the poultry traders asking them to inform livestock or city corporation officials once any chicken is detected with sickness.

Dr Mosaddeque Hossain, chief veterinary officer at Central Veterinary Hospital, told this correspondent, “You see, when we visit the markets, everything seems okay. But after we leave, they [poultry traders] do whatever they please. It’s very difficult to keep an eye on all the markets round the clock.”