Dimapur | June 25 : Even as the Animal Welfare Board of India has recently directed all poultry farms in the country to immediately discontinue starvation force molt regimes, stating that the practice is in violation of India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and is a punishable offence, the Nagaland government wants to put in place a quality regime when it comes to trade in eggs and other poultry products.
Nagaland currently gets its egg supply mostly from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa. What is worrying is the fact that we have no committee or board to check and monitor the quality of the eggs coming into the market. Speaking to the Morung Express, Dr. Temsu Jamir, Additional Director from the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department, informed that ahead of 2005, the Department took the sole responsibility of monitoring the egg quality for which a certain nominal token was taken from the egg traders. However, this ‘token’ issue led to a fall out between the Department and the traders, the latter stating that since ‘egg’ is not a part of meat, the dept should not levy any fee/taxes on them.
As is usual the court did not give a ruling for 6years and it is only on June 14 this year that the Department received the final order which favored the petitioner. The Veterinary department is now on the stance that the ‘token’ is not the issue but the ‘quality’ is. Unless a Government body is given the full rights to monitor, traders obviously cannot be relied upon for ‘quality’ control.
Here it may be mentioned that the seemingly innocent ‘egg’ is also a carrier of numerous diseases. Salmonella is probably the most common disease one can get from eating eggs. Chicken eggs become infected before the shell is created during incubation. The bacteria can actually be passed on from hen to egg or it can be caused by improper handling. This disease is called by its bacteria called ‘Salmonella enteritis’ which can be found inside raw eggs. Disease is spread by eating eggs that have these bacteria. Symptoms begin in two days time. This includes diarrhea, vomiting, and high temperature.
Meanwhile, starvation force molting, widely practiced on egg production facilities throughout India, deprives egg-laying hens of food in order to manipulate their laying cycles. Food is often withheld for up to 14 days and may be combined with one or two days of water deprivation.
Following the recent ban by the Animal Welfare Board of India on molt regimes in poultry farms, the Morung Express spoke to the Veterinary Department Poultry Farm manager, Dr. B. Lama, who said that, the question of this ‘molt regime’ or cruelty to animals, does not arise as there are no established large scale laying farms in Nagaland. As of now Nagaland only has breeding and hatching farms, which also in no way practices any form of ‘cruelty’ to animals.
Nagaland currently gets its egg supply mostly from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa. What is worrying is the fact that we have no committee or board to check and monitor the quality of the eggs coming into the market. Speaking to the Morung Express, Dr. Temsu Jamir, Additional Director from the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department, informed that ahead of 2005, the Department took the sole responsibility of monitoring the egg quality for which a certain nominal token was taken from the egg traders. However, this ‘token’ issue led to a fall out between the Department and the traders, the latter stating that since ‘egg’ is not a part of meat, the dept should not levy any fee/taxes on them.
As is usual the court did not give a ruling for 6years and it is only on June 14 this year that the Department received the final order which favored the petitioner. The Veterinary department is now on the stance that the ‘token’ is not the issue but the ‘quality’ is. Unless a Government body is given the full rights to monitor, traders obviously cannot be relied upon for ‘quality’ control.
Here it may be mentioned that the seemingly innocent ‘egg’ is also a carrier of numerous diseases. Salmonella is probably the most common disease one can get from eating eggs. Chicken eggs become infected before the shell is created during incubation. The bacteria can actually be passed on from hen to egg or it can be caused by improper handling. This disease is called by its bacteria called ‘Salmonella enteritis’ which can be found inside raw eggs. Disease is spread by eating eggs that have these bacteria. Symptoms begin in two days time. This includes diarrhea, vomiting, and high temperature.
Meanwhile, starvation force molting, widely practiced on egg production facilities throughout India, deprives egg-laying hens of food in order to manipulate their laying cycles. Food is often withheld for up to 14 days and may be combined with one or two days of water deprivation.
Following the recent ban by the Animal Welfare Board of India on molt regimes in poultry farms, the Morung Express spoke to the Veterinary Department Poultry Farm manager, Dr. B. Lama, who said that, the question of this ‘molt regime’ or cruelty to animals, does not arise as there are no established large scale laying farms in Nagaland. As of now Nagaland only has breeding and hatching farms, which also in no way practices any form of ‘cruelty’ to animals.
