Financial Tribune- The government has allocated 1 trillion rials ($24 million) as compensation to chicken farmers for the massive losses caused by the recent outbreak of avian flu across the country, Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said on Tuesday.

He said 30% of the amount have already been paid out, adding that last year, 300 billion rials ($71.71 million) were given to chicken farmers as compensation for the deadly virus, Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture reported on its news portal.

According to Tehran�s Union of Producers of Egg-Laying Chicken, the outbreak of avian flu has led to the culling of 16 million chicken and a rise in egg prices. The outbreak is said to have inflicted losses worth over 20 trillion rials (more than $477 million) on production units so far.

Iranian poultry farms are hit by avian flu every year around this time. The H5N8 strain of bird flu infecting Iranian farms is deadly for poultry, but according to World Health Organization, although human infection with the virus cannot be excluded, the likelihood is low.