No Coronavirus Link To Chicken Consumption: Centre

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry has clarified that chicken may be considered safe for consumption as no report has so far confirmed its involvement in coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed over 900 lives in China.

The ministry clarification came in response to a query on the issue of livestock product consumption vis-a-vis novel coronavirus (nCoV) by the Advisor, Poultry Federation of India, Vijay Sardana.

In a letter to Sardana, the Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Praveen Malik, said that poultry was not found to be involved in the transmission of nCoV to humans in any report globally.

“In this context, this is to clarify that the predominant route of transmission of nCoV, appears to be human to human, as per World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) through nCoV may not have had an animal source, which requires further investigation,” he wrote.

The letter also mentioned that similar viral outbreaks of coronavirus in the past (SARS 2002-03, MERS 2012-13) or corona-associated common cold had no involvement of poultry and poultry products world over.