TEHRAN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Avian flu has infected Iranian chicken farms, posing a challenge to chicken breeders and the country's meat output, Financial Tribune daily reported Tuesday.
Since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2017), about 30 percent of egg-laying hens, or 20 million, and 10 percent of broiler chickens, amounting to one million, in the Iranian farms have been culled for the infection with the disease.
"If the virus spreads further among broiler chickens, the whole country's meat production will be affected, as chicken has an important share in Iranians' meat consumption," said Mehdi Masoumi-Esfehani, the deputy head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture's Agriculture, Water and Food Industries Commission.
Masoumi-Esfehani also said 300 egg-laying hen units have shuttered because of the outbreak and the remaining ones are operating below capacity and risk being shut down.
Nasser Nabipour, the head of the board of directors at Tehran's Union of Producers of Egg-Laying Chicken, said the first strains of avian flu hit Iran in the fiscal year 2010-11.
"The more deadly strain of the virus emerged in the 2015-16, infecting over 1,500 egg-laying hen farms," he said.
According to Nabipour, most of the egg-laying units in Iran are located in the provinces of Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, East Azarbaijan and Qom that produce 80 percent of Iran's total egg output.
"For every culling of 100,000 hens, around 150 workers lose their jobs," he said.
The operating units are now working at only 15 percent of their capacity, he said, adding that the virus might change in form and pose new challenges.
Iran produces over 2 million tons of chicken annually and is among the biggest producer of chicken in the world, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Hassan Rokni.
Iran's per capita chicken consumption stands at 26-27 kg per year, while the global average is 13-15 kg.
