Consumers in Kenya have been warned about eating chicken meat served in restaurants owing to the overuse of antibiotics that are harmful to human health.
According to a report conducted by World Animal Protection, farmers are using a lot of antibiotics while rearing the chicken supplied to restaurants and hotels.
The overuse of these antibiotics is responsible for fueling diseases that kill over 700,000 people yearly.
“Intensive farming methods also often rely on routine antibiotic use as a quick fix solution to keep stressed and sick animals alive,” reads a section of the report finding.
The report, which was released this week stated that global fast foods restaurants in Africa do not adhere to animal welfare.
It further went to note that at least seven of the global fast-food restaurants in Africa have no strict adherence to the animal welfare standards for their African markets.
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Coupled with poor hygiene in handling production, many chickens end up suffering from skin lesions and lameness. Yet, restaurants continue buying them.
Incidentally, chickens are not the only ones vulnerable to diseases. Human health is also jeopardized, said the report.
The report, which was done by The Pecking Order 2021, ranked fast-food restaurants across the globe on how they perform on their commitment, ambition, and transparency on chicken welfare in their supply chain.
It carried out the assessment in three areas including corporate commitments, objectives and targets, and transparency.
In corporate commitments, it analyzed the policies that address how important the welfare of chickens is to the company. Whereas objectives and targets looked at promises a company has made to improve chicken welfare.
The report also considered how various food companies live up to their promises on chicken welfare, conducted through their performance reporting on transparency.
“For the first time, in addition to the global assessment, 14 local rankings have been also created to reflect the realities in different geographies,” read the report.
According to the analysis, the European countries are showing genuine progression.
The Pecking Order 2021 identified one of the fast-food chains for failing to adhere to chicken welfare in Africa compared to its counterparts in Europe.
“Irrespective of business, a significant number of companies and outlets do not adhere to animal health,” said Dr. Victor Yamo, farming campaign manager at World Animal Protection.
He added that many big brand restaurants are denying billions of birds the chance to grow at a healthy rate or behave naturally.