WELFARE - Industry Changes Will Help 60 Million Chickens Per Year

Global Alliance Partnerships (GAP) announced their first-ever partnership with a major food service company that will result in improving the lives of approximately 60 million broiler chickens per year.

Compass Group USA has committed to healthier, slower growing strains of chickens, improved living conditions and more humane slaughter, by pledging to ensure certification under GAP’s 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating program for all broiler chickens as a buying requirement across 100 percent of their business by 2024.

Compass has also agreed that, by 2024, all broilers in its supply chain be rendered unconscious prior to shackling using a method of Controlled Atmosphere Killing.

Rick Post, COO Compass Group USA, said, “This partnership underscores our Envision 2020 principles and creates positive impact for people, animals and the planet while balancing social, environmental and ethical responsibility with commercial success. Very simply, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Another major food supply company took steps towards more humane conditions for broiler chickens with Aramark asking its suppliers to take the following actions by 2024, or sooner if possible:

• Transitioning to strains of birds that measurably improve welfare issues associated with fast growth rates per Global Animal Partnership’s (GAP) standards.
• Reducing maximum stocking density to equal to/less than 6 lbs./sq. ft. per GAP standards.
• Providing chickens with enriched environments including natural light, hay bales and perches that meet GAP standards.
• Evaluating with animal welfare organizations over the next year issues related to litter quality, lighting, air quality, and other environmental conditions.
• Rendering chickens unconscious prior to shackling using Controlled or Low Atmosphere Stunning.

"Aramark’s announcement is a transformational shift for the treatment of chickens in its supply chain. We’re very pleased to work with Aramark to help create this important commitment, which demonstrates yet again how seriously the company takes animal welfare,” said Josh Balk, Vice President of Farm Animal Protection, Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

These changes in the food supply industry are in response to consumers’ increased awareness of where their food comes from and how it’s raised.

There has been more public pressure for cage-free or free run eggs and many animal organizations have voiced concerns about the welfare of chickens, not only living in less than ideal environments, but the general health of the fast-growing birds.

The improvements made by Aramark and Compass Group USA also reflect the move towards what is perceived as healthier meat, as many consumers look for and restaurants source meat that is antibiotic and hormone free.

Leah Garces, US Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming and GAP Board member said, “When Compass, the largest food service company in the world, says enough is enough, chickens need a better life, we know we are at a tipping point. An avalanche is coming towards the chicken industry which they cannot afford to ignore.”

HEALTH - Ricky's Restaurants Switch to Antibiotic & Hormone Free Meat

The Ricky's Group of Family-Style Restaurants announced it will be the first full-service Canadian-owned family restaurant chain to begin serving pork entrées on its breakfast menu that have been raised without any antibiotics or added hormones.

This step has been taken by other restaurants, notably A&W who promote this to consumers who are concerned about what is in what they eat.

Actions limiting antibiotic and hormone use are also in response to the rise in antibiotic resistance around the world.

The World Health Organization considers antimicrobial resistance a global concern.

Their website explains: “Antimicrobial resistance occurs naturally over time, usually through genetic changes. However, the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials is accelerating this process. In many places, antibiotics are overused and misused in people and animals, and often given without professional oversight. Examples of misuse include when they are taken by people with viral infections like colds and flu, and when they are given as growth promoters in animals and fish.”

As reported in InfoStream, the US is implementing the Veterinary Feed Directive to control the use of antibiotics in animals and the Canadian Government is also putting in new regulations for antimicrobial use by veterinarians.

Ricky's Senior Vice President Stacey Hansson said in a release, "We strongly agree with and support the 'don't take unnecessary antibiotics' message, telling the public that we don't need antibiotics every time we are not feeling well. And we definitely don't need them in our food. Antibiotics are for the sick, not the hungry."

The restaurant chain has been working with their pork producers for over a year on this initiative and is now working with its beef and chicken suppliers to make similar changes.

HEALTH - Veterinary Feed Directive to Control Antibiotic Use

Farmers in many fields – raising everything from cattle to chickens and even bees – are anxious to see how a new federal feed directive will impact operations.

Set to take effect January 1, 2017, the rules will make it more difficult to get antibiotics for livestock but at the same time offer veterinary supervision to hopefully limit the amount consumed by humans.

“Essentially, the directive is an attempt by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce the amount of antibiotics fed to animals that could potentially end up in the human food supply,” a Utah-based Daily Herald article states.

All producers raising animals for human consumption regardless of operation size must comply.

The rules will also require a relationship to be forged between livestock producers and vets when it comes to acquiring medicated food used to treat animals for illnesses including pneumonia and mastitis (an inflammation of the mammary glands which can lead to infection and see a reduction in milk production) the Herald states.

Many in the industry are scrambling to ensure those affected will be prepared when the rules take effect and not blind-sided when looking to access antibiotics for animals.

The new regulations also mean medicated feed can no longer be used to create weight gain but only for medicinal purposes – disease prevention and control.

Currently, livestock owners can get medicated food directly from a feed store but next year it will no longer be legal for them to sell medicated feed without a written directive from a vet.

Some fear that mandating an order be written by a veterinarian will be cumbersome and cause delays, of several days, in the process of getting medication to an animal.

Growing pains are anticipated.

“Most veterinarians aren’t accustomed to the dosages and feeding rates and feeding lengths of time, so there’s going to be a little bit of struggle with that,” Marty Short, general manager of the North Region Feed Mill told the Daily Herald.

According to the Centers for Disease Control at least two million people in the U.S are infected annually by bacteria resistant to antibiotic treatment and more than 20,000 die from these infections.

The major push behind the directive is “to mandate judicious antibiotic use in livestock to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria.”

And there appears to be an appetite among would-be consumers to make meat antibiotic free.

A & W, for instance, heavily advertises the fact they no longer have antibiotics (nor hormones or preservatives) in their beef.

While the amount and type of hormones used in meat is closely regulated by Health Canada and the U.S Food and Drug Administration, the issue of antibiotics in farm animals' food supply has been one leading to warnings from health officials both sides of the border.

Canadian officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control caution the “growing use of antibiotics in farm animals' food supply is worsening the problem of antimicrobial resistance – the phenomenon of bacteria becoming immune to antibiotics,” a Huffington Post article stated.

Short says, ideally the directive will shed a positive light on the industry in the eyes of consumers.

“The whole process can be a positive for us in improving consumer perception,” he told the Daily Herald.

“Even though most of us feel these things have been judiciously used in most cases, consumers do see a need for it and we need to respond to consumer concerns and we need to take this seriously and do the best we can to comply with these rules.”

Of course, there are glitches yet to be worked out as the directive is rolled out.

Utah beekeepers, for instance, could see operations complicated given most veterinarians – required to write the directives – do not prescribe to bees, David Wilson, a dairy extension veterinarian at Utah State University told the Daily Herald.

“In order to get the antibiotic-medicated cakes, somebody's going to have to become the bee vet,” he said.

Many argue that large-scale meat production relies on antibiotics to keep animals healthy and, according to a CBS report, some studies suggest the risk to humans consuming animals who have been treated with antibiotics is extremely low.

Others contend the “overuse of antibiotics in humans – not animals – (is) causing a rise in drug-resistant bacteria,” and a 2004 study showed “the likelihood that antibiotic would not work in a human due to animal use at 1 in 82 million.”

“The problem is not an animal or human issue per se,” Dr. Tom Chiller with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CBS.

“It's about using the antibiotics as judiciously as we possibly can in situations where they are needed.”

By Nadia Moharib

Nadia is an animal lover who has adopted everything from birds to hamsters, salamanders, rabbits, fish and felines. She has written about all-things-pets for years and was a long-time editor of a pet magazine in a daily newspaper which featured a Q & A column, Ask Whit, penned by her pooch (ghost written, of course.) The serial dog owner lives in Calgary, Alberta and most days can be found at a dog park picking up after her rescue pooch, Scoots.