The news about bird flu II in Jalgaon couldn’t have come at a worse time. For the Rs 34,000-crore poultry industry is still trying to bounce back after the government declared bird flu had landed in Navapur on February 18 and consumption of chicken and eggs hit rock-bottom across the country.

‘‘We had made some improvements over the last 10 days, but this will set us back further. We have taken a Rs 3,000-crore hit already,’’ said Bharat Tandon, chairman, Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturers’ Association. Others like Anuradha Desai, chairperson of the Rs 1,300-crore Venkateshwara Hatcheries peg the losses at around Rs 5,000-crore and growing.

Whatever be the actual losses, industry insiders say this is the perfect time to focus on the ‘‘wet markets’’, the unhygienic, unregulated, non-mechanised source of 96 per cent of poultry. This is the sector that will need to pull up its socks by way of regulation and standardisation to meet post-hit market demands.

Though institutional sales were picking up—the defence services, railways and airlines had put chicken back on the menu—before Jalgaon, it is retail sales that prop up the industry. For the moment, the industry’s only tactic to win back consumer confidence is advertisements.

Associations like the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) have roped in filmstars to convey the chicken-is-safe message. A regular advertisement campaign by NECC in the print media is being used to convey the message that poultry products are safe to consume if properly cooked.

But, according to poultry industry consultant Amit Sachdeva, ‘‘For the consumer trust to revive, the government will need to create a food safety net. A ‘Seal of Quality’ will need to be the part and parcel of the marketing of the food products like chicken or eggs.’’

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