Chickens' Lib

by Clare Druce

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  Since following that tractor, we now knew for certain that dead chickens accounted in part for the vile smell coming from our least-favourite broiler farm. So we tried to interest Kirklees’ Environmental Health Department in the issue, urging them to use their powers. We could assess the precise age of the latest batch of birds because we’d often notice a little white van, its logo proclaiming day-old chicks, passing my office window.

  ‘Please,’ I urged a female Environmental Health Officer. ‘Make an inspection on day thirty nine or forty of the growing cycle – that’s when you’ll get the true picture, and see for yourself the dead birds among the living. That stench can only be from decomposing birds, and if you don’t believe us, we have photos to prove it!’ I said (or words to that effect).

  Eventually she reported back to us. And when did she go? On day three, she said, and it had all looked fine! No need for any action. And of course it would have looked fine, those charming three-day old yellow balls of fluff, cheep cheeping their way around the shed, on whistle-clean litter.

  I remember having an overwhelming urge to shake this woman from Environmental Health. How could I force her to understand the simple mathematics of the broiler chicken cycle? Had she applied intelligence to the problem, it’s possible that cases of botulism wouldn’t have continued to crop up, and far fewer animals today would be picking up a potentially fatal disease as they innocently graze their pastures. Our authority could and should have warned other local authorities against the practice of spreading contaminated poultry litter on fields.

  Was Kirklees simply too proud to listen to a pressure group? It’s really not easy to understand that particular brick wall.

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  Contaminated spent chicken litter spread as ‘fertilizer’ attracted our attention over the years, as cases of botulism in cattle continued to be reported in Veterinary Record.

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  When Unigate set up a huge complex of broiler units in Humberside, with each farm holding nearly half a million chickens, a serious environmental problem emerged. Residents in the area attended planning meetings and complained bitterly, pointing out the likelihood of environmental degradation (animal suffering counting for nothing in planning decisions) but their representations were over-ruled. Soon, all ten Unigate farms were up and running, with used poultry litter from nearly five million chickens to be disposed of, somehow, every few weeks.

  One of our supporters, directly affected by the sudden massive influx of chickens and associated traffic, took photos of the huge mounds of litter stacked on agricultural land, some right beside a well-used footpath. Rats scavenging on chicken corpses were plain to see. We visited the area too, and took similar photographs.

  A local farmer, opposed to yet another ‘farm’ with its 450 million chickens complained in his local paper (November 28th 1987): ‘… environmental health officers say there will be no problems and that Unigate’s site in Spalding has had only one complaint in 10 years…But I do business with people in Spalding. I was told that the stench from the units is absolutely terrible and there are complaints about the additional traffic.’

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  It’s clear from a 2005 letter to Veterinary Record (2) signed by scientists working at three UK Veterinary Laboratory Agencies that it’s an accepted fact that dead chickens are routinely left behind in poultry litter. Their first piece of advice, from a list of eight Dos and Don’ts, was: ‘Poultry carcases and carcase material must be collected and disposed of by rendering or incineration in accordance with the Animal By-Products Regulation 2003.’ Presumably ‘carcase material’ means the half-eaten bits of chickens, rather than the whole bird; more than a hint there, then, that dead birds are not collected on a daily basis.

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  Botulism in farmed animals caused by contaminated poultry litter seems to be on the increase, with two reports from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency appearing on its September 2009 web page (3). Here I read of the death of ten ewes from a group of sixty. The pasture they’d just been moved from ‘…had recently received a dressing of poultry manure from the owner’s own layer and broiler flocks…a diagnosis of botulism in the affected animals was made on clinical grounds. The Food Standards Agency was notified.’ The involvement of the Food Standards Agency, plus the lack of any specific information as to the type of botulism was worrying. Could it be that this outbreak was of a kind dangerous to humans?

  Another case, this time among fattening cattle, was identified as type D botulinum toxin. Four animals died, no doubt painfully and miserably. ‘The pasture had been spread with poultry and bovine manure while the animals were still grazing.’

  The outbreak among the ewes, also listed under the Veterinary Laboratory Agency’s (VLA) 2009 list of ‘highlights’ for September, ended with the plaintive statement that there was now: ‘…further evidence of lack of awareness of the risk for cattle and sheep of contact with poultry litter. In this case it was the flock owner’s own manure [not very well put, that] causing the problem. Specific targeting of producers who have both poultry units and cattle or sheep enterprises with information could have a beneficial effect. Greater awareness by cattle and sheep farmers is still needed.’

  Not much good had come, then, of the VLA’s own News Release, dated December 7th 2006: ‘The Veterinary Laboratory Agency (VLA) today announced new guidelines to help farmers protect their stock from botulism. Incidence of suspect botulism has increased substantially since 2003…The use of poultry litter containing carcasses or any carcass material as fertiliser to spread on agricultural land is contrary to the Animal By-Products Regulations 2005 in England, with equivalent legislation in Wales, Scotland and NI.’

  Chickens’ Lib did its best to spread the word, way back in the 1980s. We tried our best to create ‘awareness’, sending our information sheet, complete with photograph, to MPs, MAFF, bacteriologists, Environmental Health Departments… At that time we were contacting hundreds of officials in addition to our own supporters.

  It’s just another example of legislation that means next to nothing. How often have farmers been prosecuted under the 2005 Regulations? I thought I’d like to know for sure.

  After reading about the two new cases reported in September 2009 I emailed DEFRA, asking if I could have a list of prosecutions of anyone causing death to cattle via the spreading of infected litter and was surprised to learn that my query would be a case for Freedom of Information; I would hear back from the appropriate department in due course.

  Eventually, I was asked if I could ‘narrow the search’. This was impossible and, since I had a strong hunch that the answer would be nil, I decided not to pursue the matter.

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  In 2009, World Poultry reported research carried out at Johns Hopkins University in the USA. The study’s researchers looked for two different types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, namely staphylococci and enterococci, in stored poultry litter. These bacteria are found in the digestive systems of both chickens and humans, and apparently were present, over a period of four months, in poultry litter too. During this time both types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria survived and even increased.

  The researchers concluded by querying whether further studies were needed to determine whether these resistant strains of bacteria found in chicken manure could end up in people, or if better manure/litter storage was needed. This same article put the annual size of the USA’s used poultry litter problem at an estimated 13 to 26 million metric tonnes. Better storage of all those contaminated litter mountains sounded a tall order indeed (4).

  Not so clever …

  Irene and I worked out a technique: when approaching a farmer with our most usual request – four or five end-of-lay hens, for the garden – Irene did the talking. A local accent would surely arouse fewer suspicions.

  While out driving one day we’d noticed a shocking old battery unit, really a big shed, or possibly disused garages, smelling terrible and complete with severely de-feathered birds st
anding on collapsing wire flooring – all easily seen through broken windows. We’d earmarked the place for a return visit, and also reported it to Leeds MAFF, telling them we estimated that thousands of hens were incarcerated there under worse than usual conditions.

  When we drove by a few days later we spotted the farmer coming out of the shed, so we drew to a halt and approached him. Irene, the picture of innocence, engaged him in conversation while I stood by, keeping quiet.

  He let her ramble on for quite a while. This is promising, I thought. But suddenly his manner changed. With arms akimbo, he fixed us both with a steely glare.

  “You know more about this than I do,” he snarled. “Be off with you!”

  We’d been rumbled. Word had really got around in battery farming circles, even as far as this outpost. Our plans thwarted, we made our exit, the farmer still standing by the roadside staring truculently after us, doubtless making a note of my number plate.

  * Freedom Food is the RSPCA logo applied to food animals reared according to higher welfare standards than average commercial ones.

  ** ‘We’ being colleagues at Faccenda’s chicken slaughter premises where Mr Heath, recalled from retirement as an Official Veterinary Surgeon, observed chicken slaughter and clarified his theories.

  *** Aviagen claims to be the market leader in poultry genetics.

  Chickens and food–borne ills

  Botulism isn’t the only danger lurking in used poultry litter and all that it contains – salmonella too can hang around in it. Regarding salmonellosis, my Concise Veterinary Dictionary says: ‘The application of contaminated manure on pasture can be an important method of spreading the disease’ (and this includes to humans). As most people know, the Salmonella bacterium can contaminate meat, and handling raw or undercooked meat poses dangers. Eggs too may harbour the bacteria and if eaten raw or lightly cooked can cause food poisoning, especially in the very young and old. In 1988 a Food Hygiene Laboratory’s estimate (1) was that around four fifths of chickens on sale were contaminated with salmonella. It was later that year that Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie spoke out in Parliament about contamination in eggs, whereupon panic broke out throughout the egg industry and Edwina lost her job.

  Salmonella can persist in surprising places, even on furniture. I remember the tragic case of a toddler who died from salmonellosis. His mother’s work had been associated with Unigate’s broiler farm development on Humberside. It was revealed at the child’s inquest that the fatal Salmonella enteritidis bacteria had been identified on upholstery, in all likelihood brought home on the mother’s clothes and deposited on a chair.

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  Scandalously, MAFF only reacted to the public health danger from salmonella food poisoning once the situation hit the headlines. But the threat was not new. It had simply been ignored by officialdom. Fifteen years previously an article in The Times, dated August 6th 1973, had pointed the finger at MAFF. Journalist Philippa Pullar told how the Ministry of Agriculture had set up a computer programme with the avowed intention of clarifying patterns of salmonella infections. But it seems the plan came to nothing.

  Perhaps the computer didn’t work or, if it did, nobody at MAFF understood it. Or could the reason have been darker? Was it because hens often show no symptoms, being merely carriers of the disease, simply soldiering on, laying their secretly infected eggs? Certainly nothing was done to protect the public from an illness that could, and sometimes did, prove fatal. Broiler chickens too were infected, to the extent that irradiation of poultry meat was under consideration (2).

  Encouragingly, a Food Standards Agency survey found that by 2009 only 0.5% of chickens tested positive for Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium (3). This improvement is due to vaccination programmes. Yet despite vaccination, one in every two hundred chickens remains contaminated. In addition, vaccination programmes have greatly decreased the incidence of salmonella food poisoning from eggs.

  I’d considered putting this huge reduction in chicken meat and eggs infected by salmonella in the ‘progress’ chapter near the end of this book. But this book has been written on behalf of the chickens; it was animal cruelty that sparked off the founding of Chickens’ Lib. Vaccination programmes may protect consumers from illness but often do nothing to help the birds. Indeed, the success rate accorded to vaccination programmes could be seen as a means of helping the poultry industry to continue with its practice of keeping animals in cruel and squalid conditions.

  In 2010, turkeys were deemed responsible for most cases of S enteritidis and S typhimurium, the two strains of salmonella that commonly threaten human health (4).

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  Now the search is on for a vaccine against the most common causes of food-borne illness – Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. Campylobacter has been endemic in poultry for years, down on the factory farm. In 1982, Dr Martin Skirrow of Worcester’s Royal Infirmary warned that campylobacter could be cultured from chicken and turkey carcases sold in retail outlets right across the world (5). In November 1985 Farmers Weekly described broiler chicken sheds as ‘the most potent breeding ground for campylobacter organisms’. It reported Dr Keith Lander, head of work on campylobacter at MAFF’s Central Veterinary Laboratory at New Haw, as saying: ‘It now seems beyond dispute that most human campylobacter infections are derived directly or indirectly from animals. This is a matter that greatly concerns the veterinary profession and the livestock industry.’ In 1992 the two forms of campylobacter dangerous to humans were described as the bacteria most frequently reported as causing acute enteritis in the UK and most developed countries (6). In the intervening years, the dangers from eating contaminated poultry have not diminished.

  A bout of illness after eating food contaminated with the campylobacter organism might mean a few days off work, or something far more serious: ‘In severe cases grossly bloody stools are common, and many patients have at least one day with eight or more bowel movements. Most patients recover in less than a week, but 20% may have a relapse or a prolonged or severe illness’ (7). While animals may act simply as carriers of the campylobacter organism, the infection in humans can cause pains so severe as to mimic acute appendicitis. Infected children may suffer grand-mal seizures. In extreme cases, an attack of campylobacter food poisoning can leave a legacy of reactive arthritis, or it can even prove fatal (8).

  *

  Fast-forward to January 2010: Rob Newbery, the NFU’s chief poultry advisor, told Poultry World that he believes: ‘…the figures [for campylobacter food poisoning] reflect the fact that little is known about the organism…The industry does take it seriously, but we need science to help us out, and, therefore, find ways of preventing it infecting flocks’.

  It’s almost touching, this faith in science. Apparently it hasn’t yet sunk into the consciousness of industry people that filthy conditions breed disease like nothing else.

  Then in May 2010 Poultry World ran an article entitled Getting to Grips with Campylobacter. This revealed that a recent report by the European Food Safety authority declared 75% of UK flocks to be infected, while the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) found contamination in 65% of chickens on sale in 2009.

  Suggested solutions, based on lower figures in Scandinavian countries, included biosecurity measures involving ‘minimum contact with the birds’. I was left wondering how minimum contact would sit with the new legal EU obligation to inspect broilers at least twice daily, and about the morality of minimising human contact with farmed animals.

  Another idea put forward in the article was to abandon ‘thinning’ of flocks, which is the periodic removal of selected birds to provide the market with chickens of specified weights. If thinning in any way accounts for the prevalence of a potentially fatal form of food-borne illness, why is the practice not outlawed in the UK?

  To Poultry World’s Philip Clarke’s query: ‘How extensive is the problem in humans?’ Food Standards Agency’s Gael O’Neil responded: ‘Campylobacter is a number-one cause of fo
od-borne disease in the UK. Just in England and Wales we estimate that there are about 300,000 cases a year…Of these, about 15,000 result in hospitalisation, and there are even about 80 deaths. It is estimated that 60-80% of campylobacter food poisoning is related to chicken. If we can get on top of this, we will be making a major contribution to improving human health.’

  From time to time Chickens’ Lib attempted to promote joined-up thinking between government departments (namely Agriculture and Health) but it seems there’s not been much progress.

  Recently, major scams that surely put the public at risk have been hitting the headlines. In the next chapter you will read tales of corruption bold enough to take your breath away.

  A word of warning

  Over the years, meat classed as unfit for human consumption has been entering the food chain, doubtless far more of it than is ever detected. Here are just a few examples of cases that did come to court:

  In 2002 Michael Bloomfield, Norfolk farmer and owner of the ‘Fresh and Frozen’ company in Tibenham was found to have been supplying, for human consumption, chicken and other meat condemned as fit only for pet food. For years Bloomfield had collected the condemned meat from an abattoir near Ipswich, cleaned it up, packed it in trays, and sold it on to butchers, markets, restaurants, shops and wholesalers in Norfolk, Suffolk, Luton, Hitchin and, it was thought, London too. When his premises were raided by environmental health officers, trays sufficient to wrap 200,000 chickens were found, along with nine tonnes of decomposing meat, as well as poultry carcasses covered in rat droppings and maggots. In addition, evidence was found that pigs had been illegally fed putrescent poultry carcasses. Commenting on the six-month prison sentence handed out to Bloomfield, Sue Nixon, the EH officer who had led the case said: ‘This put public health in serious jeopardy. The case was moved to the Crown Court because of the crime’s severity, and yet the final sentence seems not to reflect how serious this was.’ (1)