By ZHU BORU (China Business Weekly)
Updated: 2004-02-13 15:01

Do you have chicken?

Many Beijingers are asking this question these days. Almost overnight, chickens have disappeared from their plates - and even out of sight.

Why? Fear of contracting bird flu, even though no case of the deadly disease has been reported in the capital.

Virtually every chicken cage is empty at local markets. Poultry slaughter and processing has been banned by the municipal government.

Meanwhile, supermarkets in the city and local chicken growers have lowered their prices.

Beijing Huadu Broiler Co, one of the municipality's largest chicken growers, has lowered the price of its frozen chicken per kilogram from 13 yuan (US$1.57) to 11.8 yuan (US$1.42).

The company has also slashed the prices of its chicken wings from 27 yuan (US$3.25) to 23.8 yuan (US$2.87).

At the frozen chicken section in Wu-Mart, a large supermarket in Beijing, few people were interested in buying chicken, despite the sharply reduced prices.

Although experts stress bird flu can be killed in high temperatures, customers are queasy about poultry dishes in restaurants.

"I do not order chicken or duck, or even dishes cooked with eggs, when dining out with friends," said Xiao Wang, a Beijing resident.

Some restaurants have eliminated chicken from their menus.

Since the disease has not surfaced in Beijing, many other people have continued eating chicken.

That is why restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Quanjude, famous for its roast Peking duck, have not been affected by the outbreak of bird flu.

Officials from both restaurants said they were confident in the safety of their products, not only because their suppliers have strict quarantine procedures, but also because their food products are cooked in high temperatures.

However, the city, which was hit hard by severe acute respiratory syndrome last year, seem to be more sensitive than ever to such threats to people's health.

The municipal government has banned imports of live chickens from other provinces and is conducting spot checks at its border.

Beijing has set up 200 bird flu monitoring stations, Beijing Star News recently reported.

And Beijing Zoo last week closed one of its three exhibition halls at its bird garden to prevent the spread of bird flu.

Zoo workers also removed all the turkeys from display to a non-exhibition area.

The Badaling Safari Park in Beijing has stopped using chickens to feed its 200 lions and 100 tigers.

The eight major parks in urban Beijing have also taken preventive measures.

The first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which can jump to humans, in the Chinese mainland was confirmed last month in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Since then, the disease has been detected in 13 of China's 30-plus provinces and autonomous regions.