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‘Banned pesticides poisoning poultry feed’

Pesticides and insecticides banned in Europe and other developed countries are being freely used in Pakistan and are one of the major causes of poisoning poultry feed, Dr. A. A. Qureshi, professor of physiology at the University of Karachi and pathologist in charge, K & N Avian Disease Diagnostic & Research Institute told The News.

”These pesticides and insecticides produce Afla toxins that make poultry feed poisonous,” he explained. The death of buffaloes in Landhi Cattle Colony recently too was caused by afla toxins, he added.

He said unlike developed countries where grain is stored in silos, Pakistan lacks proper harvesting, storage and transportation facilities for grain. This is instead kept in open, warm climatic conditions. Further, there is no quality control for such grains in the country.

”The Pakistan Standards Institute (PSI) has evolved standards for poultry feed but unfortunately it has not become law as yet,” said Dr Qureshi.

The shortage of grains that are essential ingredients of poultry feed has also generated a crisis, agreed Abdul Maroof Siddiqui, a spokesman of Pakistan Poultry Association.

”Wheat is an essential part of poultry feed, but since it has become a scarce commodity lately, the production of feed has suffered,” he said.

Poultry feed comprises grains such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum (55 to 60 percent), canola meal (12 percent), soybean meal (five to eight percent), rice polished (10 percent), guar meal (four to five percent), sunflower meal (four to five percent), limestone and di-calcium phosphate (three to four percent) besides millet (three to four percent) and fishmeal (three to four percent).

Proteins are like “building blocks” for making animal and plant tissue. Animal bodies are very largely composed of protein. Whenever birds are growing, or producing eggs, they use a lot of protein. The beauty of nature is that the two major plant groups, the grains and the beans, complement each other beautifully in the amounts of different essential amino acids they supply. Together, grains and beans make “complete protein.”

Protein is important for all animals. But for poultry, in producing eggs and growing to produce meat, the protein part of their feed regimen is crucial. Finding good quality, cheap protein is one of the challenges of raising and keeping chickens.

Pakistan has a high consumption of poultry feed. This can be gauged from the fact that as many as 6.95 million bags of poultry feed each containing 50 kg of feed are consumed in Punjab alone whereas the sale in megalopolis Karachi ranges between two to 2.5 million bags. The market value of these bags are Rs 6.94 billion in Punjab and Rs 1.26 billion in Karachi, according to Siddiqui.

Siddiqui said poultry industry had suffered a big blow because of what he called “media hype” about bird flu and sales of chicken have dropped by 40 percent.

”We are doing a jihad for providing cheap source of protein but the industry is registering a steep fall due to media hype about bird flu and increase in the cost of production of poultry feed,” he said.

”This can be gauged from the fact that a 50kg bag of poultry feed was available for 974 rupees in 2007 but its cost has shot up to 1075 rupees in 2008. In fact, poultry industry today is incurring a substantial loss,” he said.

He said there were 150 poultry feed units in Pakistan, including 10 in Karachi but rejected the notion that use of dead fish in poultry feed was the cause of bird flu.

”Fish is always dead when it is consumed by human beings or used in poultry feed. Small fish that is also called trash fish is used in manufacturing of poultry feed at boiling temperature. It is not injurious,” he said.

”Every unit of poultry feed has its own laboratory and after it is manufactured, the commodity is also sent in other laboratories for cross checking,” he maintained.

”The feed consumption in chickens is different in summer and winter,” he said. “Consumption increases in summer and so does the sale of chicken because more people frequent restaurants in summer. Chicken is ready in six weeks in winter and seven weeks in summer.”

Tags · Pakistan · Feed · Contamination · Pesticides

23.02.2008. 07:14