The World Animal Protection (WAP), an organization aimed at fighting for animal welfare, has called on both national and international fast food companies to review their policies to include chicken welfare.
According to a report dubbed The Pecking Order, only four fast-food brands assessed globally including KFC, Subway, Starbucks and Burger King are signed to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC)
Among their demands include the end of close confinement of chicken, provision of at least 6 hours of constant darkness per day, meaningful enrichment and slow growth in all the regions including Africa.
“If the policies are not followed and that is why we’re pushing organizations and retailers of fast-food restaurants to look at it. You end up with poor quality products which have a negative impact on your health,” Said Dr. Victor Yamo, Farming Campaigns Manager at the WAP
He added that farmers who give antibiotics to their chickens in an attempt to mask poor healthcare end up transferring mycotoxins to their end products including milk, meat or eggs which affect human health.
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More than 200 diseases ranging from diarrhoea to cancers are as a result of food containing harmful viruses, bacteria, parasites or chemical substances.
According to the World Health Organization, over 600 million fall sick yearly due to contaminated food while 420 000 cases result in death.
The organization further called for collaboration between government agencies and the county governments to ensure safety for the public.
“We need to ensure that at your village level there should be an animal health technician that can look at some of these things. At your sub-county level there should be a veterinary officer that can do some of these things and ensure that the meat.”
Animal welfare also has a direct impact on animal productivity. According to Dr. Yamo, due to poor welfare in poultry production systems the average farmer loses between 22,000-150,000 shillings per cycle of eight weeks.
“If a farmer is losing 150,00 in every 8 weeks and he does 6 cycles in a year that farmer has lost just slightly below a million shillings so there’s impact on productivity.”
Globally, Word Health Organisation (WHO) reports that Ksh.11.9 billion (US$110 billion) is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries.
