5,300 chickens dead in Odisha. It's not due to bird flu. What killed them?

India's poultry industry is one of the largest in the world, valued at over Rs 1.6 lakh crore. And it's now increasingly at risk. What's behind it?

In Short

• Nashik, Kerala, Odisha also report poultry deaths due to extreme heat
• Chickens struggle to cool down as they cannot sweat, leading to heat stress
• Temperatures above 40°C cause rapid mortality, worsened by poor ventilation

When the transformer at a poultry farm in Malkangiri, Odisha, failed recently, the consequences proved fatal.

With electricity gone and diesel unavailable at local pumps, the farm's cooling and ventilation systems shut down entirely. By the time the crisis was resolved, more than 5,300 chickens were dead, which is approximately 12 tonnes of poultry, causing an estimated loss of around Rs 15 lakh to the farm owner.

The worst part is that Malkangiri was not an isolated incident.

In Nashik, Maharashtra, where temperatures surpassed 41°C in early May, around 300 to 400 chickens died at a farm in Baglan village, while a farmer in nearby Vani village lost close to 1,000 birds around midday, the hottest part of the day.

Kerala's poultry sector has reported a similar pattern, with birds dropping dead as the state bakes through an unusually harsh pre-monsoon season.

India's poultry industry is finding itself at direct risk as temperatures soar across the country driven by climate change and compounded by several other factors.

WHY ARE CHICKENS VULNERABLE TO HEAT?

Unlike humans, chickens cannot sweat. Their only way of releasing body heat is by panting, breathing rapidly to push warm air out.

But, when the surrounding temperature climbs too high, this mechanism too fails. The bird's internal body temperature rises faster than it can shed the excess heat, leading to a condition called heat stress.

In mild cases, heat-stressed birds eat less, drink more water, and produce fewer eggs.

But with India now experiencing extreme heat frequently, temperatures hit record levels, leading to the chicken's organs shutting down.

Above 40-42°C, those are temperatures now being regularly recorded across multiple Indian states, mortality can be rapid, particularly for broiler chickens, which are bred to grow fast and carry more body mass, generating more internal heat.

Crowded sheds with poor ventilation accelerate the process dramatically, as the combined body heat of thousands of birds raises temperatures inside the shed well above the outdoor reading.

This is precisely why electricity is not a luxury for a poultry farm during a heat wave but a lifeline for the thousands of its feathered residents.

Fans, exhaust systems, misters, and cooling pads are the only tools farmers have to keep shed temperatures survivable. When power fails and backup fuel runs out, as happened in Malkangiri, the birds have nowhere to go.

SUMMER AND A WIDER CRISIS

India's poultry industry is one of the largest in the world, valued at over Rs 1.6 lakh crore. And it's now increasingly at risk as early-summer heat waves grow more intense and frequent.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued heatwave alerts across Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala in recent weeks, with temperatures in several districts running 4-6°C above normal for this time of year.

Without consistent power supply, reliable access to emergency diesel, and farm-level infrastructure improvements such as insulated roofing and evaporative cooling systems, mass die-offs will become an annual feature of the Indian summer, with losses ultimately passed on to consumers through higher egg and chicken prices nationwide.

- Ends