Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture are working on a bill to regulate the poultry industry as farms struggle with an unidentified disease decimating their flocks. The bill proposes the establishment of designated poultry market centres.

Officials hope to regulate the industry to control the spread of disease. Experts have been working on the bill for the last six months, anticipating the passing of legislation by the early days of the next budget year. The proclamation to govern the production and marketing of poultry products will be the first for the industry. It includes provisions that criminalise the marketing and distribution of "unsafe" poultry products. Violations could result in 200,000 Br fines and lead to five years' imprisonment.

The bill comes to the surface at the time of the spread of an unidentified disease affecting chickens across the country. Last month, the Ministry enacted an embargo on poultry products in hopes of mitigating its effects. The authorities temporarily banned the marketing of poultry products in 2006, following a scare of the avian flu spreading worldwide.

“We're diagnosing the disease to identify its origin,” said Tsigereda Fekadu, director of poultry development.

However, according to people following the issue, the authorities plan to relax the restrictions after inspecting poultry farms for susceptibility to the disease. Farms inside "free zones" will be allowed to market their products. The Ministry is also preparing a manual that will impose procedures to be followed in the event of an endemic, Tsigereda disclosed.

Industry insiders say establishing market centres can help trace the origin of disease in a short period.

Negasi Amha is a lecturer at the Haromaya University School of Animal & Range Sciences who has researched the poultry industry. He warns the market centres may be harmful to some in the industry.

"Limiting transactions to market centres could push small poultry farms out of business," he said.

A small poultry farm run by Temesgen Berhe and his two friends in Sebeta, 20Km southwest of the capital, could be one of these. Opened six years ago, the farm has been operating under capacity due to rising costs for feed and a lack of vaccines. Two weeks ago, things took a turn for the worse when Temesgen lost 2,000 broiler and layer chickens to the mysterious disease. Inspectors from the town's agricultural research centre have taken samples from the dead chickens.

“We haven’t heard from them since," Temesegn told Fortune.