#Cover | Over the past two months, millions in #India received WhatsApp messages asking to stay off eggs and chicken as they could be infected with #coronavirus. Was there any degree of truth to the rumors at all? Surprisingly, yes. But only because of the broad nomenclature.
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Coronavirus is a group of viruses known to cause respiratory ailments. The ongoing pandemic is of #Covid19, caused by a new type of #coronavirus previously not known to medical experts. But many use the two interchangeably.
Coronaviruses have long been observed in dogs, cats, poultry and livestock and other animals. The one found commonly in chicken is an “infectious bronchitis virus". Research so far has not established any link between the #coronavirus found in chickens and #Covid_19 in humans.
“If the name of the virus is the same in both species, it creates panic,"says Dr D.D. Parkale from the animal husbandry department of Maharashtra. “There is no science to support that coronavirus in chickens is communicable to humans."
But panic and fake news around the ongoing pandemic made several people go off poultry products. Today, the industry faces its worst crisis in a decade. @KhandekarOmkar reports.
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