NDR Info exclusive: still massive use of antibiotics and beak amputation in turkey husbandry

In conventional turkey farming in Germany, antibiotics are still used on a regular basis. According to information from NDR Info, in some stalls, including in Lower Saxony, whole turkey stocks are treated with antibiotics during the entire fattening period. This is proven by the corresponding documents that are available to NDR Info.

The use of antibiotics as growth accelerators has been banned throughout the EU since 2006. Animals may only be given medication if an illness is suspected. According to the State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety in Oldenburg (LAVES), not individual turkeys are treated, but whole flocks. The preparations have not changed since the ban.

Various veterinarians and animal rights activists from the BUND complain that this procedure is not illegal, but that the ban is practically circumvented by the animals being prescribed the medication by the veterinarian. A veterinarian who would like to remain unknown said NDR Info: "It's definitely the case if you log the evidence cleanly, then you can use antibiotics over the entire time. That they are performance-enhancing is logical, sick animals would not gain weight. These In addition to the healing effect, drugs also have a performance-enhancing effect - just like doping."

Animal rights activists also criticize the shortening of turkey beaks. According to the Animal Welfare Act, this intervention is prohibited. With a special permit, however, the beaks of the turkey chicks can still be severed. LAVES confirms that this is a very painful procedure, comparable to a jaw amputation. Because the animals tend to injure themselves with their beaks, turkey farmers continue to use the practice. LAVES assumes that in conventional turkey husbandry, 100 percent of the chicks have shortened beaks, because only then can they be sold on.

Animal rights activists and some veterinarians are therefore calling for a legal regulation for turkey husbandry. Since 1999 there is only one voluntary agreement; a compromise that politics, business and animal rights activists had agreed on at the time. "We have never taken this agreement seriously, and it has never helped a turkey," said BUND.

Source: Hamburg [ NDR Info ]