Fowl raisers in Vietnam are on the verge of bankruptcy, since most of consumers have turned their back to chicken, local newspaper Youth reported Tuesday.

Raisers nationwide used to sell some 40 million poultry each month, but their current sales are halved, resulting monthly losses of at least 450 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (28.3 million US dollars), said Tran Cong Xuan, chairman of the Vietnam Poultry Raising Association.

Some raisers have either voluntarily culled their healthy fowls to receive state assistance of 10,000 VND (over 0.6 dollars) per poultry, or simply let them die of hunger, he said, proposing the government assist localities nationwide to build concentrated slaughterhouses and strengthen quarantine activities.

More consumers will use poultry meat again if they are confident that it comes from healthy fowls semi-processed at hygienic facilities, he noted.

A total of 22 localities nationwide have detected poultry deaths since Oct. 1. Bird flu outbreaks in remaining localities have killed and led to the forced culling of nearly 2.4 million fowls, according to the Department of Animal Health under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Source: Xinhua