Infected chicken makes it to the menus!

If you are planning to go out to a restaurant for eating karahi, BBQ or shawarma then be warned, as you might be eating dead chicken or meat that was infected by mysterious disease.
Recently, thousands of chicken fell victim to a mysterious disease and died. The poultry industry sources said they were not destroyed properly and huge amount had been transported to Lahore and sold by the retailers to the restaurants and shawarma sellers. In many cases, the infected chicken was sold to the retailers, who slaughtered it and sold it to restaurants, shawarma vendors and hotels. The prices of chicken in the recent month have remained very high but at the same time the price of chicken dishes and shawarmas remained stable in the city.
The industry sources said dead chickens were supplied at lower rates, as the poultry farmers wanted to recover their losses. “Thousands of chicken died in the suburban poultry farms of city and many people sold the dead stocks to the retailers, who supplied it to the small restaurants,” said an employee of a poultry farm at Manga Sundar Road adding normally the retailers sell the chicken meat to the vendors and no buyer bothers to check either chicken was slaughtered or it died before being slaughtered. He said the price of chicken remained Rs 270 per kg in retail market only because of low supplies but it was interesting that the prices of chicken dishes remained stable in the restaurants. “Looking at the disease, majority of farms sold infectious chicken to the wholesalers at lower rates and they instantly slaughtered it to deliver it to the restaurants and hotels,” he said adding in some cases, the vendors even used dead chicken.
He said the City District Government Lahore was very strict in checking the quality of beef and mutton meat sold in the city but there was no such phenomenon or standard to check the meat or quality of chicken. Looking at the ‘leverage’, poultry farmers had tried to get rid of their infectious chicken by selling their flocks to vendors at lower rates to reduce their losses.
The price survey of chicken products sold in the market reveal that an average price of shawarma is Rs 40-70 per piece, karahi for Rs 350-450 per kg and burger for Rs 80-120. Interestingly, the prices of all products remained the same in the whole month and there no increase was witnessed, whereas, the prices of chicken almost doubled. The chicken was sold for Rs 170-175 per kg some two months back and touched Rs 270-280 per kg level and remained at this level for more than two weeks.
“How is it possible that the prices of raw material used for preparing chicken dishes increased sharply but burgers, shawarmas and karahi were sold at the same rate,” said the sources, adding the CDGL should have checked it.
A burger and shawarma seller in Model Town said that he used to purchase chicken at higher rates and bear the loss from his pocket. “The prices of chicken fluctuates and we try to bear the loss,” he said adding he was not sure about other sellers either they purchased chicken at lower rates or not. “I know some burger sellers, who have bought chicken at lower rates,” he added.
A chicken seller, Kamran, of Township denied any purchase of dead or infectious chicken saying he is accountable for his deeds. “I am not sure what other chicken sellers are doing but we have confirm information that infectious chicken has been transported to the city,” he opined.