Indian state's beef ban to boost chicken sales

Mumbai - Poultry firms expect demand to pick up after a ban on beef in India's western state of Maharashtra, with other states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party also aiming to toughen laws on livestock slaughter.

India is the world's second largest beef exporter and fifth biggest consumer, although its majority Hindu community views cows to be sacred, and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is pushing for legal steps to "protect and promote the cow".

Maharashtra, which has a population of about 110 million, and sprawls over an area roughly the size of Italy, widened its ban this month to cover meat from bulls and bullocks. The northern states of Jharkhand and Haryana, also ruled by the BJP, are looking for ways to discourage slaughter of livestock.