BROILERS AND LAYERS ; SUBJECT OF DATELESS MYTHS
RAJALEKSHMI J R
“The cost of hormones is costlier than the bird itself .Already the cost of production is so high, why will anybody increase the cost by adding hormones”
K.S Akhilesh Babu, KPBFA president
Precedent lines are a big question to this world itself ,eventhough highly educated today ,our kins mostly Indians are living with the ceaseless myths on broiler meat and layer eggs. As a veterinary student came I myself came across this very topic even 2 days before.
“no,don’t take this white egg and broiler birds,it is raised is injecting hormone which is not good for our body” the historical dialogue .Today I am here to have a small discussion with our dearest siblings on this statement which has to be cleared atleast in this 21st century when we are far elevated in education and technology.
MYTH 1:BROILERS ARE BROUGHT UP BY HORMONE INJECTION
The idiom of this topic proper is that broiler farming itself is a great moneygulfing ,then how to use this costlier hormones for raising the lakh and lakhs of birds in a single farm.
“A lot of the so called growth promoters ANTIBIOTICS are used in poultry farms that too in a margin decided by the veterinarians .”
Here we hang to hang upon the word Growth promoters ,they are not a substance which is fed as much as feed ,but in a ver minute milli or microgram level. They help in improving growth ,but scientifically proven now that these antibiotic doesn’t change any genetic factors or nothing much in bird except it helps to maintain good health and resistance and also improves the feed intake and utilisation. BUT is a ultimate myth to believe that this birds are fed with bulk level of antibiotics and it will fuel increase in antibiotic resistance in human pathogens. Although it is highly interesting that our Indian farmers who are marginal and not so wealthy even don’t have antibiotics in their far, economics.
Of course we cant blindly blame our kins who are not much aware about the genetics and science behind the lineage of this broiler rearing .They are sticking on their worry about the fast growth and big size of fowls in the market age of about 6 weeks compared to our normal desibirds. Its ofcourse the fault our education system ,not dealing with what is important to teach our generation to being acquistomed during the course of life. Its much important to teach them the basic roots of broiler lineage where they are lined up from a highly genetically superior parents. Hope this writing may atleast glance upon the same .
MYTH 2: DILEMMA ON WHITE EGGS AND BROWN EGGS AND THEIR NUTRITIONAL QUALITY.
Hormones and antibiotics are the flaming topics of Broiler industry, akin the nutritional quality of white eggs ,that is layer eggs is the question of our people regarding layer farming.
“its not good to take white eggs ,it has hormones, get browneggs while shopping .”usual dialogue of an average Indian family.
But it is hard to accept after understanding the comparative nutritive levels of these two eggs that we are blindly and ineptly spending more than five rupees per single desi chicken egg compared to layer egg. Where it is lagging ??
I can hang on the same answer here also .Our children are not given a proper light on the basic spheres of life hopefully makes this dilemmas. In an actual comparison between the nutritive values of both the eggs much amazingly most of the nutrients incliding the size an dcontent of egg is more with layer egg ,except in a single factor of omega 3 fattyacid ,which is a little more in brown eggs.
DOWNSIDES OF BROILERS
Ofcourse in an article dealing with the prides of broiler meat its equally important to mention any stepbacks in this same topic with a solution for this negative. That negatives are like the two faces of a same coin.
The major downside in this staple reported is foodpoisonong according to our research statistics. Consumer Reports published after a test survey on chicken breast samples of different brands revealed the presence of some whooping bacterias .Also the antibiotic resistance is pointing out as a negative side of this broiler industry or broiler meat.
RECOMMENDATIONS
But there are ofcourse measures to cut down the risks :
- Prevent letting raw meat come in contact with the food we take .
- Proper cooking of meat at high temperature before consumption.
- Ensuring proper refrigeration of stored meat.
- Proper decontamination of vessels and gadgets contacted with raw meat.
These very simple precautions with care can make a chance to get out of the odds .
Its always the ignorance towards a subject proper is making that staple a big question and passing it downwards to the succeeding generations.
The most important recommendation in this very topic is making the public aware of what and how of not only this particular topic, but almost all misbelieves on which our world is hanging around.
POULTRY INDUSTRY AND GDP
The past waves of Covid 19 proved how poultry industry is important in contributing for the total GDP and economy of our nation.The rise in price of components of poultry feed including soya meal ,hurdles in transportation ,and the lower consumption of meat by people during pandemic added to it.According to statistics poultry sector contribute about 1.3lakh crore to the GDP.The losses of this very big industry affected auxillary industries including fee manufacturers also.Poultry the fastest growing segments of India which employs over 3 million people and contributes over 45416 crores to the GDP.
What does this points to us ??,of course the need for the growth of this segment.
CONCLUSION
To end up with ,it is not necessarily to prove that poultry products are made such a right and successful way. Like all other fields there will be negatives and there is ofcourse researches going on day by day for the betterment of the same.To sumup with the is a small stepping stone to make our public aware that all our beliefs are not going to be perfectly true at the end. It is high time to mark an end to the stigma behind the broiler meat and layer eggs .Our general public have to be made aware that improvements in the growth, livability and health of this field is not due to any malpractices as everone belives,but it is the genetics ,management and level of nutrition that makes the change.That too this genetic improvement is not on daily progress but being achieved by a harder process of genetic selection and breeding.
Last but not the least ,we the educated world has to join hand to hand to comeup from these senile beliefs and make our secceeding generation aware of the facts which are mislead around us.Its also important to understand all these a’ideals to give some respects to the toil of the sons of this nature ,our great farmers,who spend their blood and time to take utmost care of these birds, their feed,management,health, hygeiene and a lot and lot.
