Why Have Poultry Multiplied In Size Since 1950?
Why have poultry multiplied in size since 1950? It is said to be to meet the needs of more people in the world, but that is not true. Poultry farmers often use antibiotics as growth hormones and painkillers for feed, resulting in bigger chickens. Bigger poultry size means more health problems. More health issues mean a decrease in the number of hens in the flock, resulting in a loss of money. One of those problems is the inability to stand up, and if a chicken cannot stand on its own, it will lose feathers on its chest. When a bird loses feathers and are not molting, it can lead to hypothermia, frostbite, or even death if not treated. That treatment is the antibiotic growth hormones. In a way, chickens are being bred to be sick, miserable,
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and short-lived. It takes only six weeks for a broiler chick to hatch and transform into a chicken nugget fodder. The way chickens are contained until the day they become processed foods can bring injury, infection, or death in large numbers.
There can be thousands of hens in each separation of the sheds, which does not bode well for the “underclassed” hens who get picked on and are left to die of infection, disease, or starvation. The housing and maintenance of hens are two of the biggest factors of whether or not the hens can live to meet the lowered standards of the chicken product companies, and/or whether they can skim by with the health code ratings. The dust, ammonia, feces, and feathers in the air are generally cleaned up only to avoid acquiring health code violations and citations. The ammonia and fecal matter in the air causes health issues within the chicken’s respiratory system, blocking air flow and causing heart irritations. Consumer Report (date needed) found that two-thirds of chicken meat analyzed was infected with salmonella or various combinations of bacterial disease from the effects on the hens from the uninhabitable conditions of the sheds in which the chickens are held. It is common for chickens to die from ascites, a disease caused by the inability of birds’ hearts and lungs to keep up with their rapid skeletal growth. The rapid growth needs more room to grow; however, with all of those chickens in confinement, they get agitated and begin to quarrel for the space they need, often killing each other out of injuries, infection, or an injury leading to starvation. To prevent this, when these birds are very young, usually just 1 to 10 days old, hot blades are used to cut off a portion of their sensitive beaks so that they won’t peck each other out of the frustration caused by intense confinement. Sometimes their toes, spurs, and combs are also cut off. The birds are not given any painkillers to ease the agony of this mutilation, and many debeaked chickens starve to death because eating is too painful.
One company based in the Netherlands has avoided drugs and the mutilation of chickens.
Vencomatic has found a way to make chickens grow faster without the use of antibiotic growth serums. The company had done it to sustain animal welfare and not breed antibiotic resistant bacteria that can harm a person if they happen to ingest it. Breeding chickens to grow faster can be unhealthy for the chicken, which may or may not require medicine to treat, is a more humane way of achieving more product than growth hormones in antibiotics. Per year, over thirty million pounds of antibiotics are used, but few are used to treat diseases. Instead, they are used to help weight gain on the animals, which can damage their legs due to the extra weight presented to the chicken’s body. Using antibiotics as growth promoters, while cruel to the chicken, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration since the 1950’s when the growth of chickens has started to shorten with time, and expand in production. However, the feeding of antibiotic residue to chickens started in the 1940’s(slate.com). A pharmaceutical firm tried to boost nutrition in feed. The exact opposite happened to change the chicken farming business to produce unhealthier chickens faster. There is two accomplishments of the pharmacies, cheaper feed, and higher costs of chicken per pound sold. Even though chicken costs more than it should, chicken processing companies are using it to breed more chickens in these conditions instead of keeping a steady production rate and upgrading their factories. Factories throughout the United States can total up to nine billion broiler chicks being produced and slaughtered. The reason this number is so high, the chicks do not live to be very old. They typically are sent to be processed at 5-7 weeks of age or around 47 days as opposed to 112 days almost 70 years ago. Today’s chickens weigh up to seven pounds, three times as much as chickens bred in the 1950’s. With the
growth the breasts are 80% larger than those 60 years ago. The larger breasts contribute to the bird’s balance, making it top heavy and straining the legs, leading to bone deformities and abnormalities. The hock of a chicken is the weakest point of a chicken’s leg, and is prone to injuries.
Perosis and twisted legs are common among flocks of chickens and are almost unavoidable. The result is more common in roosters than hens due to the bigger size of roosters. It is anything but uncommon to find more than only one disorder in the flock, whether it be leg, skeletal, or crossbeak. Raising a broiler to 4 lb. in six weeks puts a great deal of pressure on the bird's structure and is a major source of stress, said Nick Dale, a poultry specialist at the University of Georgia said, "The results of this stress are manifested in a number of ways, such as increased incidence of leg problems, ascites, and sudden death syndrome." Chicken production is only trying to make quick bucks off of poor quality.
and short-lived. It takes only six weeks for a broiler chick to hatch and transform into a chicken nugget fodder. The way chickens are contained until the day they become processed foods can bring injury, infection, or death in large numbers.
There can be thousands of hens in each separation of the sheds, which does not bode well for the “underclassed” hens who get picked on and are left to die of infection, disease, or starvation. The housing and maintenance of hens are two of the biggest factors of whether or not the hens can live to meet the lowered standards of the chicken product companies, and/or whether they can skim by with the health code ratings. The dust, ammonia, feces, and feathers in the air are generally cleaned up only to avoid acquiring health code violations and citations. The ammonia and fecal matter in the air causes health issues within the chicken’s respiratory system, blocking air flow and causing heart irritations. Consumer Report (date needed) found that two-thirds of chicken meat analyzed was infected with salmonella or various combinations of bacterial disease from the effects on the hens from the uninhabitable conditions of the sheds in which the chickens are held. It is common for chickens to die from ascites, a disease caused by the inability of birds’ hearts and lungs to keep up with their rapid skeletal growth. The rapid growth needs more room to grow; however, with all of those chickens in confinement, they get agitated and begin to quarrel for the space they need, often killing each other out of injuries, infection, or an injury leading to starvation. To prevent this, when these birds are very young, usually just 1 to 10 days old, hot blades are used to cut off a portion of their sensitive beaks so that they won’t peck each other out of the frustration caused by intense confinement. Sometimes their toes, spurs, and combs are also cut off. The birds are not given any painkillers to ease the agony of this mutilation, and many debeaked chickens starve to death because eating is too painful.
One company based in the Netherlands has avoided drugs and the mutilation of chickens.
Vencomatic has found a way to make chickens grow faster without the use of antibiotic growth serums. The company had done it to sustain animal welfare and not breed antibiotic resistant bacteria that can harm a person if they happen to ingest it. Breeding chickens to grow faster can be unhealthy for the chicken, which may or may not require medicine to treat, is a more humane way of achieving more product than growth hormones in antibiotics. Per year, over thirty million pounds of antibiotics are used, but few are used to treat diseases. Instead, they are used to help weight gain on the animals, which can damage their legs due to the extra weight presented to the chicken’s body. Using antibiotics as growth promoters, while cruel to the chicken, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration since the 1950’s when the growth of chickens has started to shorten with time, and expand in production. However, the feeding of antibiotic residue to chickens started in the 1940’s(slate.com). A pharmaceutical firm tried to boost nutrition in feed. The exact opposite happened to change the chicken farming business to produce unhealthier chickens faster. There is two accomplishments of the pharmacies, cheaper feed, and higher costs of chicken per pound sold. Even though chicken costs more than it should, chicken processing companies are using it to breed more chickens in these conditions instead of keeping a steady production rate and upgrading their factories. Factories throughout the United States can total up to nine billion broiler chicks being produced and slaughtered. The reason this number is so high, the chicks do not live to be very old. They typically are sent to be processed at 5-7 weeks of age or around 47 days as opposed to 112 days almost 70 years ago. Today’s chickens weigh up to seven pounds, three times as much as chickens bred in the 1950’s. With the
growth the breasts are 80% larger than those 60 years ago. The larger breasts contribute to the bird’s balance, making it top heavy and straining the legs, leading to bone deformities and abnormalities. The hock of a chicken is the weakest point of a chicken’s leg, and is prone to injuries.
Perosis and twisted legs are common among flocks of chickens and are almost unavoidable. The result is more common in roosters than hens due to the bigger size of roosters. It is anything but uncommon to find more than only one disorder in the flock, whether it be leg, skeletal, or crossbeak. Raising a broiler to 4 lb. in six weeks puts a great deal of pressure on the bird's structure and is a major source of stress, said Nick Dale, a poultry specialist at the University of Georgia said, "The results of this stress are manifested in a number of ways, such as increased incidence of leg problems, ascites, and sudden death syndrome." Chicken production is only trying to make quick bucks off of poor quality.