Poultry industry misleading public: CSE

Dismisses industry that antibiotic residues in chicken in India are way below international standard

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Dismissing the poultry industries' claim that antibiotic residues in chicken in India are way below international standard, the Centre for Science and Environment on Thursday said that the industry is misleading the public.

"The poultry industry is misleading the public by saying that residues found in Indian chicken are lower than the EU standards. They are comparing apples with oranges. The EU does not allow antibiotic use as growth promoters in poultry. The standards for antibiotic residues depicting the maximum limit address the therapeutic use," the CSE said in a statement here on Thursday.

The CSE recently conducted a study and found antibiotic residues in almost half of the chicken samples tested across Delhi-NCR. It had said that chickens are fed antibiotics to ensure faster growth. The CSE said that this led to growing resistance to antibiotics in human body in the country.

The industry, including Pune-based Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group's, under the Venkys brand, said that the antibiotics residue found in Delhi/NCR region was in the range lower than what EU Standard recommends.

CSE said that its researchers have found that "companies like Venky's are openly selling antibiotic-laden feed premix to the poultry industry as a growth promoter."

"We would miss the point if we focus on the levels of antibiotic residues. We need to stop non-therapeutic use to prevent emergence and spread resistant bacteria," said CSE. It said that the issue is not restricted to antibiotic residues only but to "increasing reservoirs of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the gut of the chicken which can get transmitted to humans through food, or through direct contact or through the environment."

The CSE study showed that 40 per cent samples that were tested were found contaminated with antibiotic residues and out of this, 17.1 per cent samples had residues of more than one antibiotic. All the tissues tested - muscles, kidney and liver - had presence of antibiotics.