The outbreak of H7N9 bird flu and the culling of hundreds of thousands of birds at Shanghai's wet market over the past week has turned many consumers away from poultry.

As of Wednesday (April 10), nine people had died out of the 33 confirmed human cases of the virus, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Officials in Shanghai, China's financial hub, ordered all live poultry markets in the city closed and all poultry transactions banned on April 6, leaving many food stalls empty.

Zhang Yuhua, who owns a frozen chicken stand at the same market, said that sales had been hit by 90 per cent and it would be hard for her business to recover. She said consumers had nothing to worry about.

Reports submitted by China's farm ministry last week showed that the first case of H7N9 in birds was found on April 4 in a pigeon destined for human consumption at a wholesale market in Shanghai.

Authorities also discovered seven infected chickens in the same market, which led to the culling of 20,536 birds in total.

The U.S.-listed firm Yum Brands, the world's largest restaurant company by number of outlets, said in a filing on Wednesday that the latest deadly avian flu outbreak would have a "significant, negative impact" on sales at KFC stores in China during April.

Presented by Adam Justice