The National Association of Broiler Chicken Breeders (ANEPC) sent a request for urgent intervention to the Director of the National Food Safety Office (ONSSA), asking him to investigate the sale of laying hens on the market and their orientation towards consumer consumption.
The members of the ANEPC revealed, in a correspondence addressed to the director of the ONSSA, whose MoroccoLatestNews UK holds a copy, that some companies sell the laying hens in public and weekly markets, and even directly on the streets of some towns, to consumers.
” Our association has observed the spread of this phenomenon since the appearance of the H9N2 virus in 2015, which is not very virulent. These companies take advantage of the lack of control and the silence of the competent services to sell this type of poultry to citizens, while their eggs are prohibited for sale in Europe and America. They do not take into account the consequences that this can have on the health of consumers“, alerted the ANEPC.
In this sense, the Association called on the services of ONSSA “to take into account the concerns of chicken farmers, whose farms suffer from strange diseases such as ILT, according to the statements of specialized technicians”.
“ILT is an infection of the throat and a disease of the respiratory esophagus. It is a highly contagious viral disease that affects laying hens and causes a drop in egg production. This is pushing companies to get rid of them by selling them outside industrial butcheries, under the name of “crusaders” (resembling the Beldi chicken), as the director of the Professional Federation of the Poultry Sector told the one of the national newspapers“, according to ANEPC.
The Association has therefore asked the director of ONSSA to shed light on this disease, in accordance with the two constitutional principles which stipulate that civil society is a partner and that the right to information is fundamental.
In conclusion, ANEPC reminded the director of ONSSA that the composition of feed reserved for broiler chickens intended for consumption differs from that of feed intended for laying hens. This means that these chickens sold outside the circuit do not contain the proteins necessary for the human body, since their main mission is to produce eggs. In addition, these hens live locked in small cells for more than a year and a half, which compromises their life and quality, according to the Association of Benevolence towards animals (L214) based in Europe.
ANEPC therefore calls on the director of ONSSA to quickly activate his services in order to solve this problem which has repercussions on the health of citizens.