A research and advocacy think tank today accused Indian poultry industry of misleading people by perpetuating "myths" on use of antibiotics in chicken rearing.
Dismissing the claims of the industry that the antibiotic residues found in chickens were lower than EU standards, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that EU does not allow antibiotic use as growth promoters in poultry.
CSE had in its recent study found antibiotic residues in chicken sold in Delhi-NCR. The CSE further urged the Indian government to implement a comprehensive set of regulations including banning of antibiotics use as growth promoters in the poultry industry.
However, Poultry Federation of India told PTI there is a need to educate and spread awareness amongst the farmers about antibiotic residues in chicken and it is in very few cases, not as much as claimed by the reports.
"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. Further, these standards focus on protecting against toxicity of antibiotics to humans. They do not completely safeguard humans from antibiotic resistance," a CSE statement said.
The think tank said that the largely non-therapeutic use in Indian poultry industry that is for promoting growth of the chicken and to prevent disease even in the absence of it, is "large-scale".
"In such case, all the chickens in a poultry farm are exposed to low-dose of antibiotics for their entire life-span - 35-42 days. Compared to the therapeutic use, wherein a higher dose is given selectively to only those that are sick for about few days to a week to kill the bacteria in the chicken, the non-therapeutic use leads to emergence of resistant bacteria.
"This is exactly why medical doctors in case of humans prescribe strongly against dropping the antibiotic course in between," the CSE said.
The CSE study released on July 30 had revealed that out of 70 chicken samples from Delhi-NCR region tested for six commonly used antibiotics, 40 per cent samples had tested positive and residues of more than one antibiotics were found in 17 per cent samples.
