One day old chick

One calls “ chick one day old” of young chicks of the species Gallus gallus domesticus 12 midnight to a few days, delivered in mass by a hatchery operator to stockbreeders who will make of them Poule S layers or more often of the Poulet S of flesh. There exist also ducklings one day produced industrially, just as of the Dinde S. In France the legal definition is “ any poultry old of less than 72 hours and not having been nourished yet. However, the musk ducks (Cairina moschata) or their old crossings of less than 72 hours and having been nourished are also regarded as one day old chicks”

This stage “upstream” of Breeding intensive has contributed to enormous increase in productivity avicolous in last decades, but poses several problems, economic, medical, zootechnical and ethical, which was in particular highlighted at the time of the diffusion of the virus of the Avian flu which in 2005 had already infected poultries on three continents, with recurring hearths in several countries until the beginning of 2007.

The breeding

Historical backgrounds

In 1925, it took 120 days to produce a table fowl. Today about thirty days are enough and they are approximately 45 billion industrial chickens which were thus produced for the only year 2004 according to INRA. As example, at the time of the Pandemia of avian flu of the years 1968-1969, China lodged approximately 12 million chickens. It counts some today more than 15 billion (more than 1000 times more in a little more than 30 years!), and in same time, the international exchanges were strongly multiplied and accelerated.

A first phase of universalization of the avicolous selection was allowed by the avicolous contests, the international exchanges of reproducers and on progress of the genetics and the Zootechnie. Then, for still improving the short-term profitability of the breeding, poultry industry separated, optimized and industrialized all the stages of the traditional breeding, while continuing a drastic selection of its reproducers. The third and last stage of this universalization were the industrial production of “ one day old chicks”.
Le change was discrete and fast, without the public becoming aware of it: some farmers or stockbreeders industrially produced chick and quickly dominated the market, producing several billion industrial chicks today per annum. A French family company created by two farmers of the south-west of the country produces thus today the majority of the ducklings sold in China, and it has subsidiary company in several countries (majority touched by the avian flu).

The advent of a Aviation fast, powerful and subsidized and profiting from taken the tax off fuels, not subjected to the Protocole of Kyoto allowed universalization in a few years of the trade of these chicks until in the developing countries. To reduce their costs and to better penetrate the expanding markets (Asia, South America), the chick producers one day old delocalized themselves, France in particular towards and Asia, including in China and Indonesia.

The risks related to the industrial avicolous production were revalued at the time of the Avian flu, in particular after it was noted that the majority of the countries from where the multinationals of production export chicks and/or ducklings of 1 day were among the first touched by the avian flu.

Selected races

The selection aims at producing standardized chickens with very fast growth, or laying super-hens. The females resulting from the breeding industrial are often the bad reproductive ones not knowing sometimes more neither to make a nest, neither to brood their eggs, nor to defend their chicks. The mixture by the reproduction of these hens (sometimes bought like cast hens in the poor countries) with the poultries local and traditional is cause of a loss of Genetic inheritance. It is plausible that an impoverished genetic pool makes these races more sensitive to certain epidemics (Maladie of Newcastle, Avian flu). Chick producers (or ducklings, or turkey poults or ruails.) from one day must themselves run the world in the search of individuals resistant, often resulting from races local, “to improve” their reproducers, which is increasingly difficult because of the retreat of the local stocks vis-a-vis hens with high-output, but more fragile.

Sexage

It is vital for this industry to be able to determine the sex of chickens, for example the chicks intended to become layers must be exclusively females. This Sexage must be carried out before the sending, before even their first meal. The chicks not corresponding to the good sex are killed immediately. To determine the sex of a chick is difficult because the birds do not have sexual organs external and only the secondary sexual characters (feathers, peak…) appear only after four to six weeks. Sexeurs examine the cesspool bird and must identify the sex while referring to about fifteen possible diagram. If they spend a few seconds to determine the sex with an error rate is in general weak, an eye not informed will have much evil this technique very difficult to control.

an article of the Wal Fadjri of February 28th, 2006 with the Niger the case of a stockbreeder of 4.500 layers (3 000 eggs day), 38 years “That to make whereas France, country from where I import my one day old chicks, it quotes is also contaminated? ” 1.000 F CFA (1,5 €) of compensation are envisaged by shot down chicken, but the stockbreeders fear not the touch and each chicken is worth 3 times known as one whereas the other adds that it is not the price of a one day old chick which it is important of France! Harouna Laboratory, stockbreeder with Maradi produced 20.000 eggs/day. He says to a journalist Wal Fadjri : " I imported nearly 10.000 chicks of Egypt. With the release of the avian flu in Nigeria and in this country, this order is blocked over there. Which of these two countries will compensate me? ".

For also decreasing their prices, the European stockbreeders bio also now place order of their chicks to specialized producers who respect the schedule of conditions of the Organic farming but which does not force to preserve a genetic diversity. The small stockbreeders who would like to control all the die are confronted with the difficulty of getting good reproducers and at cost much higher than the consumer does not include/understand. And the liberalization of the markets imposed by OMC disadvantages them while prohibiting that they are subsidized.

Ethical problems

The consumers protest against the little of taking into account of the vital needs of the animals. Certain breedings do little case of the animal suffering, in particular in chicks. The laws or European directives seem to be slowed down by the profession. It will have to be waited until 2012 so that larger cages are obligatory for layers. The damage on the biodiversity has also ethical and cultural aspects.

Biodiversity:

The Biodiversity of the poultries and the wild parents when they still exist was an quasi-inexhaustible and evolutionary resource of Gène S for the stockbreeders. But poultry farming modern has encouraged production extremely standardized, very far away from selection process natural, which produces a high mortality and animals whose behavior is abnormal, because of the deprivation of their mother, of their environment and natural food, the exposure to an artificial food and a heated environment. The genetically modified projects of poultry (GMO) which risk even more to support the genetic homogeneity and to pose new problems which strongly worries the public as the surveys show it.

See too

History of epizooties of avian flu
pandemic Risk related to the avian flu
Plane of crisis for a pandemia
State of the avian flu epidemic in the world
Race

External bonds

Site independent of any national organization or supranational
Site avian flu of the French government
National Sanitary Surveillance Institute
Avian flu: current events, files and interviews
Avian flu and agribusiness industry
File avian flu: Questions and answers
Web site of the Belgian government which gathers any information on the seasonal flu and the avian flu
the point on the avian flu by the Afssa
Grippeinfo.tk: avian flu for the null ones! Blog of information and topicality for all to include/understand H5N1.
Avian flu: the H5N1 reaches Africa
Avian flu: the file of Yahoo! Current events
the follow-up in real-time of the dispatches of information on the avian flu
a report/ratio of GRAIN establishes that world poultry industry is at the origin of the crisis of the avian flu
a discussion forum in Dombes (first infected zone)
a discussion forum of specialists (veterinary, ornithologists)
Discussion forum one Avian (Bird) Flu H5N1 related resulting: www.allaboutflu.com
Avian flu: The " Bicyclette" chicken; not easily controllable in Africa
bonds and resources; Library off Congress
Report/ratio (http://www.grain.org/go/birdflu.), whose French version is http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=195, which summarizes the new risks related to the industrialization of the avicolous breeding.
GRAIN - Which is the turkey of the joke? : The central role of the industry of the poultry in the crisis of the avian flu http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=195

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