Several flocks
produce eggs which contain levels several times higher than the official minimum
safety level. This once again raises the question of how health these
organically produced eggs are. Claims, often made by animals welfare people and
supporters of organic farming, that organic food is healthier than food produced
by modern farming seem to be less trustworthy than the claimants want consumers
to believe.
Add this to the extra risk these outdoor birds pose for
spreading avian influenza, and this raises the question of whether the poultry
industry should continue to convert its production systems into more organic or
free-range housing types. If these systems cause a threat for human health, not
only in spreading AI but also in not meeting the minimum food safety standards,
it would be wise to rethink these issues and initiate discussions with public
opinion groups and authorities to move developments into a different direction.
These issues once again prove that food production, including food of animal
origin, can only be safe if it is done in a controlled manner. Environment
controlled or confined housing systems meet these criteria, so why should we not
reconsider the issues that motivated the use of battery systems about half a
century ago? But then we have to have a close look at bird welfare
issues.
Initiatives recently presented at the international
exhibition for innovative livestock production VIV Europe, in the Netherlands,
indicate that designers of housing systems are on the right track. They
demonstrate that they have an open eye for bird welfare, bird health and food
safety issues. Over the past years animal welfare has been a leading factor in
everything the industry has had to deal with. Today, food safety is a leading
issue, and with the detection of high levels of dioxin in eggs, we may have to
find a compromise in how we as a poultry industry have to house and manage
birds.
Wiebe van der Sluis
(Mojtaba Yegani)
Poultry Production & Management
(Wiebe van der Sluis)
Poultry in developing countries
(Arief Fachrudin)
(Ioannis Mavromichalis)
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