A. Sivanesan said Perak is the third-largest chicken breeder in the country after Johor and Kedah, and the Manjung district has been hit hard by flies due to the growth of the industry. — Picture by Farhan Najib

IPOH, Nov 15 — The Perak government has ordered all poultry farms, especially those in the Manjung district, to shift to closed poultry houses by the end of December next year in order to tackle the onslaught of flies in the state.

State Health, Consumers Affairs, Civil Society, National Integration and Human Resource Committee chairman A. Sivanesan said Perak is the third-largest chicken breeder in the country after Johor and Kedah, and the Manjung district has been hit hard by flies due to the growth of the industry.

“At the moment, there are 180 poultry farms in the Manjung district alone. Around 100 are already closed poultry houses, while the balance 80 are still practising open poultry farming.

“We have received a lot of complaints about fly problems in Manjung and the matter has been brought to the exco meeting,” he told reporters after chairing the State Environmental and Health Action Plan Committee meeting at the State Secretariat Building here.

Sivanesan said the state government will take action and shut down the farms if the owners refuse to shift to closed houses in the given period.

“We also ordered the local council to monitor and take action on the poultry owners who have chicken farms without licences,” he added.

Sivanesan also said another factor, which attracted flies, was the chicken faeces, which the farmers sold to oil palm planters.

“The poultry farmers gather the faeces and sell it to the oil palm farmers. However, the faeces are left out in the rain and sun, which allows the flies to land on them.

“We will meet with the Manjung district officer soon to set up a faeces-treatment plant in the area and all the poultry farmers can’t sell the faeces without going through the treatment process,” he added.