Outbreak of bird flu in China has caused the rise in prices of chicken

Prices of poultry products in China went up - for the first time after the outbreak of a new strain of bird flu N7H9. According to experts, this means that China took control of the spread of the new virus, writes Visitchina.ru .

The first cases of bird flu N7H9 were observed on the east coast of China in February 2013. In March, the government officially announced the presence of the deadly virus, modes of transmission and methods of treatment are unknown. In the same month, the mass closure of poultry markets - as the N7H9 strain has been detected in poultry. Chinese media reported disinfection of places where infected birds have been found and indirectly - on their Destruction. For the first six weeks of infection is caused great damage to the poultry industry in China. Egg prices fell by 30-40% in the first three weeks after reports of strain N7H9. And the meat of broiler chickens from 3 yuan per 1 kg fallen in price to 024 yuan. Agricultural Economics Association of China reported a loss of more than 40 billion yuan (6.5 billion USD).

But according to the health authorities of the PRC, in early May the number of cases began to decrease. In addition, the source has been clarified, the potential routes of transmission and how best to treat it. In total there were identified 130 confirmed cases of the new strain of bird flu, among them were 33 recorded deaths.

"Many breeders in Shandong province, the main region of the poultry industry in eastern China, reduced the maximum number of poultry or destroyed, fighting the spread of the virus - says Cui Zhizhong, a professor at Shandong Agricultural University. - But after a few cycles of the production cost of poultry may increase that affect its pricing in general. According to him, the growth of prices, starting now, will continue in June and July of this year. His view is shared by Qin Fu, director of the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. "As consumer confidence begins to come back, which will create the market shortage in the supply of poultry meat and eggs will be fixed price hike" - he said.

In practice, it seems that many of China's poultry farmers have suffered losses and can not pay off the loans. Consequently, many of them try to get out of the business now - not to increase the losses. Though China's State Council has ordered the affected farms provide short-term loans at a discount to meet its debts. "factory farming will take several years to fully recover," - comments Shouchun Wang, chairman of the poultry company "Xiantao" from Shandong.