Date:22/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/22/stories/2006022203890100.htm

Back `Company hasn't supplied any infected chicks'

Our Bureau

Pune , Feb. 21

MR O. P. Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, has categorically stated that the company, per se, has not received any show-cause notices from the District Magistrate of Nandurbar.

Mr Singh told presspersons on Tuesday that the company wanted to put certain facts in their proper perspective and that "the poultry farms located at Navapur are not the franchisees of the company. The company is not the only supplier of chicks to the poultry farm but there are also other suppliers supplying chicks, poultry feed and vaccines, in and around Navapur."

"It is unfair and untrue to co-relate the alleged confirmation from Bhopal-based laboratory in respect of bird flu with the incidence of Ranikhet disease at Navapur and allege that the company has supplied infected chicks. It is against the interest of the company to supply infected chicks as it will destroy the scope for further supply and damage its reputation and market," Mr Singh said.

He pointed out that the Chairperson of the National Egg Coordination Committee has already written to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, apprising them of the bird flu controversy and requesting them for samples to be taken and sent for testing, locally and abroad, for obtaining a second opinion.

Mr Singh said that Ranikhet is a common poultry disease well known to all poultry farmers and is locally known as Manmodi. Vaccines are administered periodically from `day-old' stage to prevent the onset of Ranikhet disease; all farmers administer such vaccines to the birds as a precautionary and routine procedure.