India’s nod to allow US chicken legs has attracted strong opposition from farmers. They alleged that US poultry farms use pork and beef extracts as feed to provide vitamins and proteins to the birds.

This is objectionable to a large section of consumers in the country.

They also expressed concern over the usage of feed made from genetically-modified corn, soya meal, cotton seed meal, and canola meal, as India has not allowed GM crops yet.

The Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Associations (CIFA) wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, raising concerns on dumping of US chicken legs into India.

The feed factor

“Protein used in the US poultry feed contains meat scraps (lysine), blood meal (lysine, methionine), liver and animal tankage. These products are derived from beef and pork. Use of beef and pork by-products are prohibited in our country to be used as poultry feed,” P Chengal Reddy, Chief Advisor of CIFA, told BusinessLine .

He asked the Centre to seek clarifications from the US since usage of beef and pork is a sensitive issue here.

“Poultry feed used in the US contains animal tallow, lard (the fat extracted from pigs). We need to get a clarification from the US government whether such ingredients are used or not,” the CIFA letter said. CIFA also asked the Prime Minister not to allow the import of chicken legs till it get clarifications on the issues raised by the consortium. It called for testing of all ingredients used in the poultry feed in the US, before granting permission for imports.

He also drew attention to the usage of hormones and anti-biotics in US poultry farms. “Hormones of progesterone and dienestroldiace are used in poultries for faster growth of birds. They are not tested and approved by the government. So, the end product can’t be allowed for consumption by consumers in India,” he said in the letter.

The letter cited various documents, ingredient catalogues and the list of drugs approved for use in the poultry industry.

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