New | China's poultry industry wants to hush up bird flu news in damage control bid

Poultry associations send open letters asking government to temper coverage of the outbreak amid billion-yuan losses

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Vendors at the Kowloon City wet market. Photos: David Wong

Published: 1:15pm, 5 Feb 2014Updated: 1:36pm, 5 Feb 2014

China’s poultry industry leaders have asked health authorities to share less information about an outbreak of bird flu, as sales have suffered from an ever increasing death toll.

In open letters, the national association of poultry farmers and their provincial counterparts in Guangxi and Guangdong have as asked local authorities to “stop reporting individual cases of H7N9”, referring to the deadly bird flu strain, according to a report in the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Authorities should “avoid excessively detailed reports” on infections to prevent further damage to the industry, the report said.

Another statement on the website of the National Animal Husbandry Association claimed that identifying the virus as a bird flu strain has brought “disaster” to the industry, leading to losses of more than 100 billion yuan (HK$127 billion).

The letter, signed by 1,012 poultry industry executives, said some industry players were facing heavy losses and even bankruptcy due to the disease’s stigma and misinformation by the media over its spread via the birds. Losses so far this year have already amounted to 20 billion yuan, it said.

Guangdong authorities have stopped sharing unsolicited reports on infections with the press over the last days, Xinhua said on Wednesday.