February 26, 2008

Pakistan in poultry feed crisis
 

Pakistan is now facing two poultry feed problems; the country's free use of pesticides and insecticides are poisoning the poultry feed, and a shortage of grain supplies.
 

Pesticides and insecticides produce aflatoxins that make poultry feed poisonous, said Dr A. A. Qureshi, pathologist in charge at the K&N Avian Disease Diagnostic & Research Institute.

Pakistan do not have proper facilities for harvesting, storage and transportation, Qureshi said, grains are stored in hot climates and there are also no quality control measures for the grains.

Qureshi added that although the Pakistan Standards Institute has improved standards for poultry feed, it is not yet a law.

A spokesman of Pakistan Poultry Association said the shortage of grains have also caused feed production to suffer.

Pakistan requires much poultry feed, with Punjab alone using 6.95 million bags of poultry feed while Karachi uses about 2 to 2.5 million bags. Each bag carries a weight of 50 kg.