One of the major challenges of the poultry farmers are the diseases and damages caused by it in the sector and this causes huge losses and failures year after year. “Disease free poultry production is the only way to increase farmer’s income”.
All India Poultry Breeders Association (AIPBA) organized a webinar on the topic “Building a Disease-Free Indian Poultry sector” on 22nd June 2021 in online mode. The objective was to discuss the concern of diseases and problems faced by the stakeholders with the policymakers of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, in an attempt to develop disease-free Indian Poultry sector.
This was the biggest poultry webinar in the country with participation of more than 1500 poultry farmers through webinar’s app and 3572 poultry farmers through Facebook and YouTube. Also, representatives associated with the poultry sector and from the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Govt. of India (GoI), ICAR and other stakeholders participated in the event.
The webinar was hosted and conducted by Shri Gulrez Alam, Secretary, AIPBA & Director, IB Group.
Delivering the opening remarks, Shri Bahadur Ali, Chairman, AIPBA and M.D. of IB Group welcomed all panelists and officers of the Animal Husbandry Deptt. including Dr Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Dr O. P. Choudhary, Jt. Sect. (NLM/PC), Shri Upamanyu Basu Jt. Sect. (LH), invited as special guests.
Shri Bahadur Ali said that the concerns of the farmers should be discussed before with the policymakers of the GoI to overcome the problems of the poultry sector. He said that from Dec 2019 onwards, the situation has remained very difficult for the poultry farmers. He thanked the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, GoI for extending all possible help, yet there still were many problems in the sector. “Today, through this webinar discussions, policymakers, Scientist and poultry sector representatives will be able to exchange ideas for a better understanding of the problems of poultry disease and to provide steps towards appropriate solutions”.
Welcoming all the participants, Shri Suresh Chitturi R, Vice President, AIPBA said that about 5 million farmers are associated with the poultry sector and the sector also provides direct and indirect employment to more than 10 million people. The webinar was very important for poultry industry because the poultry farmers could now discuss their problems directly with the policymakers with a hope of a proper solutions.
As a special guest Dr Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, GoI, while addressing stated that few diseases like Influenza and Mycoplasma in Indian Poultry often trouble the farmers and such diseases should be eradicated instead of just controlling it. For this, the biosecurity, hygiene and proper waste management must be followed. The poultry sector must cooperate with the government to make the poultry sector disease-free.
By taking forward the subject Dr O. P. Choudhary, Jt. Secretary (NLM/PC) Animal Husbandry Department expressed various steps taken by the government to help poultry farmers and also said that it is very important to develop vaccines following OIE standard to avoid disease occurrence. This basic need for the poultry sector must be discussed in detail with probable solutions.
Shri Upamanyu Basu, Jt. Secretary (LH), Deptt. of Animal Husbandry said that vaccination is very important because it is the most effective way to control any viral disease from the root, but along with vaccination, all the scientific methods and steps should be taken by farmers and poultry sector for maintaining the hygiene, which is important and required for overall betterment of the sector.
The moderator of the webinar Prof. P.K. Shukla, Dean and Registrar DUVASU Veterinary University, Mathura and former Joint Commissioner, GOI, and Mr Vijay Sardana, Advocate, Techno-legal expert and Advisor, AIPBA conducted the respective technical sessions webinar efficiently.
In Panel Discussion-1, “Diseases in Poultry and its impact on Poultry Farming and Farmers’ Income”, leading poultry sector names participated.
Shri G. B. Sundararajan, MD, Suguna Foods Pvt. Ltd. said that there are many uncertainties in the poultry sector. The poultry farmer doesn’t know whether he will get the right price for his birds the next day. Due to the rumors about the poultry, small farmers suffer the most. And the diseases further add problems to growth. The Govt. should do something to end the uncertainty to support poultry farmers.
Raising important issues, Mr Balram Singh Yadav, MD, Godrej Agrovet Ltd. said that the poultry sector needs to think from the consumer’s point of view also so that the image of the poultry sector can be improved further. In the last 1-2 years, the poultry sector has suffered a loss of about 25-30 thousand crores every year, because whenever any viral outbreak is there, be it covid or bird flu, poultry sector is affected badly due to misinformation and lack of consumers education.
Talking about the technical aspects, Dr R.K. Jaiswal, President, IB Group shared that in the last few years, there has been a rapid spread of viral diseases that cannot be stopped through biosecurity alone. LPAI (low pathogenic avian influenza), is one of the main diseases, due to which thousands of farmers lost crores of rupees. There has been massive mortality mainly due to the non-availability of useful vaccine against this disease. It is an industry demand that, like other countries, early permission for the development or import of useful vaccine in India must be given and the correct antigen be provided to the vaccine manufacturers by collaborating with NISHAD (National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases) Bhopal and there should be a mass vaccination done in poultry too in the whole country like Covid vaccination. This will be the first step for the betterment of poultry farmers.
Mr Paul Gittens, Advisor, Aviagen India, said that biosecurity and proper vaccines are the basic needs of the animal protein sector. Keeping the health of the birds in mind the government should allow the production and vaccination against those diseases so that the poultry sector can be protected from Avian Influenza etc.
Mr Gurminder Singh Bisla, President, Broiler Breeders Association North (BBAN) said that Avian Influenza is the most damaging disease problem of the poultry sector in North India and said that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent it. Due to spread from migratory birds to poultry birds, there is nothing farmers can do except vaccination. It is also very important to correct the policy for the poultry sector concerning disease control.
Panel Discussion-II – “Possible alternatives to reduce the adverse effects of Poultry Diseases”.
The session was moderated by Sh. Vijay Sardana. To initiate the discussion, Dr S.K. Garg, former VC, DUVASU Veterinary University, Mathura said that the vaccine should be developed after studying the pattern of disease occurrence in the poultry sector in different parts of the country.
Government should make such labs that can detect and diagnose these diseases and be able to forecast easily. Talking about the poultry feed, the number of antibiotics used by some feed manufacturers should be avoided because they reduce the export quality of meat.
Suresh S Honappagol, former VC, Karnataka Veterinary University and former Animal Husbandry Commissioner, GoI, shared that the poultry sector was well organized but at the time of any emergency, due to unavailability of data, the planning process is hampered.
He suggested a serious effort to collate all data and proposed National Poultry Register be prepared so that proper decision and relief be provided to the farmers whenever necessary.
Dr Ashok Kumar, ADG (AH), ICAR, New Delhi said that the poultry sector could benefit by using modern technology and by creating more awareness among the farmers about biosecurity and good practices.
Talking about disease surveillance, diagnostics, and forecasting, Dr A.K. Tiwari, Director, CARI, Izatnagar, shared that only migratory birds were not responsible for all diseases. With the right research and proper and timely interventions, the diseases of poultry can be prevented. It is necessary to maintain biosecurity and hygiene.
Dr N.K. Mahajan, Member of Empowered Committee to monitor Animal Health, Animal Husbandry Department, and GoI said that broiler, breeder, and layer all are three categories of birds. These viral diseases cause a lot of damage, but to avoid it, giving a lot of antibiotics causes more damage. Vaccination is the only option to avoid this loss along with following other important measures like biosecurity and hygiene.
Delivering the closing remarks, Mr Jagbir Singh Dhal, President, AIPBA thanked all the panelists, poultry experts, and farmers for joining the webinar and expressed hope that this discussion will help in making the right policies in the interest of the poultry sector.
All the panelists were unanimous that there should be biosecurity, hygiene, and most importantly vaccination in the poultry sector so that the small farmers of our poultry sector can avoid the massive economic loss caused by the disease.
All the officers present from the Animal Husbandry Department supported AIPBA webinar initiative and assured that all the key points of the webinar would be considered for redressal.
Follow-up Activity:
Based on the outcome of the webinar, AIPBA will take up the relevant issues with policymakers to ensure that the development of the poultry sector continues and poultry farmers and related stakeholders like corn farmers and soybean farmers should also continue to benefit from the poultry sector.
All India Poultry Breeders Association was formed in 2004-5 (restructured 2020-21) with the objectives – To make Indian Poultry Atma Nirbhar and produce world class Indian Poultry Protein. – Ensure that all industry stakeholders, associations are connected through a single platform. – To Enable and provide Technological advancements to the industry. – To act as a Bridge between Indian policymakers and Industry for Poultry Industry Policy matters in overall industry coverage.
Office Bearers of the Association
– Chairman: Shri Bahadur Ali
– President: Shri Jagbir Dhull
– Vice President: Shri Suresh Chaturi
– Secretary: Shri Gulrez Alam
– Executive Director: Dr AK Rajput
– Treasurer: Dr Rama Krishna
