SIR: Your item 'Unfit Chicken' (BEN October 3) detailing bacterial infection of poultry on sale in supermarkets, came as no surprise and such a report is long overdue.
A report carried out by scientists at Bristol University in 1994 suggested that four per cent of chickens have infections located in such deep parts of the body, that they are undetectable by slaughter house inspectors and so enter the food chain with bacterial infection in their joints and bones.
With over 700 million chickens slaughtered annually in the UK, even on such a conservative estimate of four per cent, this means that 28 million contaminated chickens enter the food chain every year.
The cause of this contamination lies in the system used to produce poultry, for consumption. The modern 'broiler' chicken reaches its slaughter weight in just 42 days, twice as fast as 30 years ago.
The mass production must end now, not only for the sake of the hapless chicken, but for the consumer as well.
Anyone wishing to know more about this issue is welcome to contact Bolton Animal Rights at the address below.
Simon Dally
Bolton and District Animal Rights
P O Box 5
Atherton
Lancashire
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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