By Li Hongmei

H7N9 bird flu outbreak became more severe over the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year holidays, dealing a blow to the poultry industry in the southern province of Guangdong, according to the provincial department of agriculture.

Zhejiang province has also been seriously affected by the outbreak, which has been concentrated in eastern and southern China, as a result of which live poultry markets in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and even Hong Kong have been forced to close and birds culled.

Due to the ban on butchering live poultry during the holidays, chicken farmers have suffered total daily losses of 1 billion yuan (US$165 million). This has hit the poultry industry in Guangdong hard, as it boasts a 10% market share, the highest in China, according to Xiao Zhiyuan, chairman of the Guangdong Poultry Industry Association.

The situation has been aggravated by the practice of the four major chicken farms in China continuing to introduce standby breeding birds regularly in a bid to keep their market share, which has led to oversupply.

As a result, the price of a chick has plunged to 0.10 yuan (US$0.02), down from the peak level of 5 yuan (US$0.82), a major reason behind the staggering losses of 230 million yuan (US$38 million) for Shandong Minhe Poultry, China's largest chicken breeding farm, in 2013.

Barring a market upturn in the short term, many chicken farmers will struggle to stay solvent, according to insiders.