Indian heatwave has significant impact on poultry industry
The high temperatures are estimated to have killed nearly seven million birds there, according to a report in the Economic Times, causing losses of approximately one billion rupees. This represents a mortality rate of around 10%, more than three times the usual average summer bird morality rate of 3%.
This comes as a further blow to the poultry market in Telangana which is still reeling from last months bird flu outbreak which set producers back by nearly two billion rupees.
Andhra Pradesh has some 65 million birds when broiler and layer number are combined, while Telangana has more than 10,000 poultry farms with about 70 million live birds.
It is not only poultry that has been affected by the heat; more than 1000 people have died in the last week in the affected regions.
