Shocked by the heading? Yeah, that was my exact reaction
too. So it turns out most of the sumptuous chicken most of us have been
enjoying is not only pumped with what we thought was the worst case scenario,
hormones, but also antiretroviral (ARV) drugs!
A few weeks back one of my relatives was researching on
chicken feeds for our chicken project. Her first stop was a livestock and
poultry feeds depot belonging to one of the biggest companies in Kenya that for
obvious reasons I’d rather not name. Being a typical Kenyan, my relative
obviously asked for the most cost effective feeds available in the market, in
order to maximize profit. The sales lady was very shocked and her first
question was “mum, kwani hujui siri ya kupata pesa mob kwa kufuga kuku?”
Clearly my relative seemed to have absolutely no knowledge of current ‘survival
tactics’ in poultry farming.
The jovial sales attendant continued to explain the
latest poultry farming ‘discovery’. “You don’t have to spend too much on
chicken feeds; you just need to become more innovative”. My relative was very
excited to hear this latest innovation. As you’ve already guessed, she was
advised to buy less chicken feed and mix it with ARVs, in order to get much
better results in a shorter time-span. The antiretroviral drugs according to
the attendant make chicken bigger and heavier in a record 3 weeks!
Kienyeji chicken, which is my poultry farming preference,
under normal circumstances take an average growth span of six months to grow
from chicks to layers. With recent developments like genetic engineering,
chicken are able to grow in less than half the normal period, but genetic
engineering may not be as dangerous as hormone and ARV use.
So, what effect
could ARVs have on chicken that makes them grow extremely fast?
One of the reasons why the rapid gain in weight would
occur is excessive fat accumulation. Now this is an unproven and very
speculative theory I must say, because so far I’ve not seen any research or
test results on ARV use on chicken; for obvious reasons. I’ve not heard of
chicken infected with HIV hence ARVs are manufactured for human not poultry
use. For this reason, it’s not a shocker
that ARVs would have adverse effects on poultry.
There’s need for research by the relevant bodies;
Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI) and the rest I haven’t named here including KEMRI, in
order to ensure that ingredients that can potentially harm Kenyans are not used
in farming or food production.
The biggest risk of misusing ARVs is the
fact that if there’s any need for a person to use ARVs in the future for
treatment or prophylaxis, the drugs will not work. This is because inconsistent
use of not just ARVs, but most drugs leads to resistance of that particular
drug in the body. The question however is, after the ARV drug is ingested by
the chicken, can it affect the person ingesting the chicken’s meat?
So, what’s the solution for Kenyans? One, buy your meat
and groceries from people you know and hopefully they’ll sell you safe
products. We all however know how hard that is, especially for urban and
specifically Nairobi residents. For those near Karen area, you can purchase
groceries and meats from the “Organic Farmers Market” in Karen. But I must tell
you the prices might not be very friendly for most people.
The best option to avoid eating foods that could
potentially harm you is to produce your own food. Well, for chicken and other
animals you have to pay the city council if you’re in urban towns. One thing I
would love all Kenyans to adopt is kitchen gardening. You don’t need a large parcel of land to do
kitchen gardening or small-scale poultry farming. All you need is to utilize
your space wisely. For urban residents
and any person with limited space, there are many gardening options from
hanging gardens, flowerpot gardening to sack gardening and so much more. For
poultry farming you may need to work with a professional carpenter to construct
for you an easy to clean chicken coup that will best suit your space.
For now, be very careful the next time you buy chicken.
You might as well be introducing your system to ARVs and God knows what else!
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