Impact of avian influenza outbreaks on Turkish village chicken producers, and their opinions on the disease and disease control

The following paper was constructed from research assessing the socio-economic impacts of the Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks encountered between October 2005 and March 2006 on the Turkish village chicken producers, using data obtained from an interview survey on 64 families in six different provinces of Turkey where the outbreak was recorded. The research revealed that: 1) the villagers' protein consumption was dramatically reduced as most of them could not afford or didn't prefer to purchase chicken products. 2) The income from chicken sales (on average, it accounted for 33% of total income of those selling birds and eggs) disappeared. Moreover, the gender implication of it was notable as the income from chicken sales was generally used by the housewives. 3) 55% of the families stopped consuming chicken products due to the AI fear. However, 97% of them restarted consumption after 9 months of the AI outbreaks. 4) 65% of the families stated that they believe the crisis was artificially manipulated by the commercial chicken firms with the collaboration of the media to wipe out the backyard chicken production. 5) The respondents generally found the government's disease control efforts, organization and timeliness of compensation payments successful. However, 54 of the respondents stated that the amount of compensation payment was insufficient.