Similar efforts are undertaken in other parts of the country to combat the fake news and rumours spreading on social media.

India’s top poultry firms such as Suguna Foods, Godrej Agrovet and Venkys have reported up to a 50 per cent drop in sales of chickens and eggs in recent months, while sales have dropped by as much as 80 per cent in some areas.

India is the world’s second-largest producer of eggs, with annual production touching 90 billion eggs.

More than 25 million farmers are engaged in some form of poultry business.

Valued at US$14 billion, the Indian poultry sector employs about 5 million people and is heavily organised and equipped with powerful lobbying powers in terms of associations.

Nearly two dozen poultry organisations are active across the country, many of which operate closely with state and central governments.

Bahadur Ali, the head of one such entity, the All India Poultry Breeders Association (AIPBA), and chairman of IBGroup, submitted detailed proposals to the government on March 2 seeking a relief package for poultry farmers to compensate them for the losses incurred as a result of the rumours.

“The poultry industry is in a deep crisis. The chicken sales have dropped by 80 per cent in some parts,” Ali told This Week in Asia. “Antisocial elements are randomly peddling rumours and fake news, and this spreads fears among the public about coronavirus.”

Industry experts estimate the losses are vast, but no credible figures are available as yet.

“People have abruptly stopped eating chicken in recent weeks. The entire industry will be shut if this trend continues and the poultry sector’s survival will be questioned,” said Ali, who squarely blamed unverified social media content for the downturn.

Industry insiders say the farmers’ income has fallen from 80 rupees (US$1) to just 35 rupees (US$0.47) per bird. Yet, there is not much fluctuation in retail prices, suggesting that traders and suppliers are trying to exploit the situation.

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“Except for a few regular customers, I’ve not seen people coming to buy chicken in my store due to mere fear. People simply want to avoid meat rather than taking any risk. I sell less than half my usual numbers,” said Munuswamy, a chicken meat vendor in a Bangalore neighbourhood.

For example, the average price of broiler chicken in the Bangalore wholesale market had dropped from 91 rupees (US$1.23) per kilogram in January to 61 rupees (US$0.83) in February.

SK Nazeer, general secretary of the All Kerala Poultry Federation, said about 40,000 farmers are directly impacted in Kerala alone, and that the farmers are the hardest hit by the prevailing panic.

Many of them are scaling down their production as they cannot manage the costs of animal feed, despite the fact that the prices of feeds such as soybean and corn have also declined sharply in recent months. This could result in a meat shortage and price rise in the foreseeable future – even if the situation normalises – as raising the chicken population back to routine numbers might take weeks.

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Clarifications issued by the federal animal husbandry ministry, World Health Organisation and other credible bodies appear to have had no impact on the ground and have failed to put an end to people’s panic.

The Indian poultry sector took a blow last year when the price of maize, a key animal feed, skyrocketed. But just as it was stabilising early this year, the unexpected coronavirus storm is threatening to make the recovery path even bumpier.