Every year, more than 40 billion chickens are slaughtered worldwide for meat, the vast majority of them intensively factory-farmed.
The bottom line is profit. All that matters is the volume in which these animals, bred to hit their genetically-modified slaughter weights within 35 days of hatching, can be churned out.
Given the intensity of the production systems (raised in sheds of 50,000 birds, each will be lucky to have the space of a piece of A4 paper in which to live), the dangers of disease are massively magnified.
And so it is to prevent this that the chickens are vaccinated before birth against common diseases.
They are often also dosed up with antibiotics — a preventative measure that is easier and cheaper than dealing with individual illnesses at a later date.
Last month it emerged that food poisoning cases linked to infected chicken struck down 580,000 people last year, putting 18,000 in hospital and killing 140.
Now experts are warning that the overuse of antibiotics in poultry farms around the world is creating a generation of superbugs that are resistant to treatment by virtually every drug in the medical establishment’s armoury.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, warned that antibiotic-resistant bacteria posed ‘a catastrophic threat’ to the population.
‘If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics,’ she said.
‘And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.’
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Please don't buy chicken (or any other animal product), the overwhelming majority of birds will never experience even a second of sunshine and fresh air, most are in pain for all of their short lives and they are so young when they're slaughtered that they still have the cheep and baby blue eyes of a chick.
Eating any animal product causes suffering to the animals, ill health to humans and devastation to the planet.
The bottom line is profit. All that matters is the volume in which these animals, bred to hit their genetically-modified slaughter weights within 35 days of hatching, can be churned out.
Given the intensity of the production systems (raised in sheds of 50,000 birds, each will be lucky to have the space of a piece of A4 paper in which to live), the dangers of disease are massively magnified.
And so it is to prevent this that the chickens are vaccinated before birth against common diseases.
They are often also dosed up with antibiotics — a preventative measure that is easier and cheaper than dealing with individual illnesses at a later date.
Last month it emerged that food poisoning cases linked to infected chicken struck down 580,000 people last year, putting 18,000 in hospital and killing 140.
Now experts are warning that the overuse of antibiotics in poultry farms around the world is creating a generation of superbugs that are resistant to treatment by virtually every drug in the medical establishment’s armoury.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, warned that antibiotic-resistant bacteria posed ‘a catastrophic threat’ to the population.
‘If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics,’ she said.
‘And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.’
Please see the link for the full article.
http://
Please don't buy chicken (or any other animal product), the overwhelming majority of birds will never experience even a second of sunshine and fresh air, most are in pain for all of their short lives and they are so young when they're slaughtered that they still have the cheep and baby blue eyes of a chick.
Eating any animal product causes suffering to the animals, ill health to humans and devastation to the planet.
