Fact Check: Post claiming chicken infected from coronavirus found in Bangalore is fake

A viral post on social media claims that a chicken infected from coronavirus has been found in Bangalore. The image in the post shows the picture of a half-shaven chicken that looked ill. Vishvas News investigated and found that the viral post is fake.

Claim

The Facebook post uploaded by a page named Bangalore Re Rahuthiba Odia reads: “High alert: Chicken infected from corona virus found in Bangalore today, kindly circulate the message and avoid consumption of chicken. Spread to your dear ones.” The image in the post shows the picture of a half-shaven chicken that looked ill. The archived version of the post can be checked here.

Investigation

Vishvas News started its investigation by performing Google Reverse Image Search of the chicken’s photo. We found an article dated November 21, 2019, which had the same image. The image was uploaded in the article much before the 2019 novel coronavirus was reported. This means, that the chicken shown in the image is not infected from the 2019 novel coronavirus. As per the article, the chicken referred to in the image shows some infections to broiler chicken, nowhere it has been mentioned that the chicken has been infected by a novel coronavirus.

Vishvas News spoke to Dr. Satyanarayan Swain, Assistant Director, Central Poultry Development Organisation and enquired about such a case. He said: “This claim is false. This is misinformation circulating across social media. There is no evidence.”

Vishvas News spoke to Dr. Manoj Kumar, Principal Scientist, Virology Department, CSIR – Institute of Microbial Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. As per him, “Corona Virus is spread through close contact with an affected person having respiratory issues like coughing and sneezing. This claim doesn’t seem to be true. There is no evidence.

As per a report from World Health Organization (WHO), the animal source of the 2019-nCoV has not yet been identified.

Vishvas News has earlier debunked fake and misleading posts related to coronavirus. These posts can be checked here.

Disclaimer: The #CoronavirusFacts database records fact-checks published since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic and its consequences are constantly evolving and data that was accurate weeks or even days ago might have changed. Remember to check the date when the fact-check you are reading was published before sharing it.

Conclusion: Post claiming chicken infected from coronavirus found in Bangalore is fake. The image is old and is not related to 2019 novel coronavirus.

Tags

• Coronavirus