Artificial Insemination in Poultry - Unclean, Unsafe

Most chickens in India are born through artificial insemination. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi highlights how both sexes of birds are caused extreme pain through a dirty, rough process that spreads disease.

- Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

For India to become the world’s fifth largest egg producer and eighteenth largest producer of broilers, the poultry industry has cut many corners and caused great misery to millions of birds. In the process, it has not only spread a large number of diseases to humans but is also responsible for all humans (vegetarians as well since chicken faeces is used as fertilizer) to be almost completely immune to antibiotics. Over the last 30 years, I have written many times about the poultry industry and what diseases the birds suffer from— and what they give to humans. You should know how each bird is created.

Most chickens in India are born through artificial insemination (AI). The process starts with the collection of the semen from the male. The male is restrained by catching him roughly with his wings and legs, tossing him upside down, rubbing his abdomen and back region towards the tail roughly and many times till his copulatory organ protrudes. The worker squeezes the region surrounding the sides of the organ till the semen comes out forcibly from the ducts of the copulatory organ. The extent to which a breeder has to struggle with a male, before it is captured and restrained, varies tremendously. In some poultries, feathers are first clipped or plucked out (causing even more pain) round the vent area to give the poultry worker easy access to the male organ. The collection of semen is carried out daily—few males survive the breeding season.