July 24, 2007

Australian kids prove chickens not injected with hormones

Australian high school children have conducted a simple experiment to dispel the commonly held myth that the country's chickens are so big because they have been pumped with growth-enhancing hormones.

Students from James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, NSW, Australia reared 15 broilers and 15 layers over a six-week period to see if there would be much difference between their broilers and commercial ones.

All chickens were fed the same standard chicken feed product, made mostly from cereal grains and protein sources, obtained from a local feed supplier.

After six weeks, the average weight of the chickens bred for egg laying was 592 grammes while the average weight of the chickens bred for meat was 2388 grammes.

The results indicated that the broilers grew to be four times larger than the layers, even without hormones. The researchers believe that this dispelled the misconception that the larger size and better growth rates of the chickens is due to the use of hormones.

Nearly four in five Australians believe something is added to Australian chickens to make them larger, according to a 2006 research by the Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF).

It is not hormones, antibiotics or genetic modification making chickens larger but best practice in traditional breeding, said Dr Andreas Dubs, executive director of ACMF, adding that a simple school project proved it.