Rising losses

Feeding his chickens costs Pan almost 3,000 yuan ($485) a day, including about 2,000 yuan for a dozen packs of feed, which cost 150 yuan each. The rest goes on wages and electricity charges. With no money coming in, Pan's loss is expected to reach more than 100,000 yuan within the month.

"I used to make an annual net profit of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, which covered the family's daily expenses and helped to pay for the gradual expansion of my farm. Now I'm worried that I will spend all my savings in just one or two months," said Pan, the family breadwinner and father of a 3-year-old son and a daughter, 11.

The growth cycle of a chicken lasts about 60 days, which means that most of the meat chickens, as opposed to laying chickens, have to be sold within two months, otherwise keeping them will result in a huge waste of food and money.

At present, most of his roosters are 40 days old and need to be sold within 20 days to minimize the losses, which are rising daily.

By Monday, the losses experienced by poultry-related businesses nationwide had reached more than 13 billion yuan, according to estimates provided by the National Poultry Industry Association. Unsold baby meat chicks have so far cost breeders more than 3.7 billion yuan.

"I have no option but to pray that the scandal of the H7N9 virus will be controlled as soon as possible. That would save us from a severe dilemma," said Pan.

Meanwhile, Ye Guowang, who owns a chicken farm in the same village as Pan, is wasting money every minute on feeding 10,000 chickens that are ready to be sold.