Poultry industry misleading people: CSE

New Delhi: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Thursday rubbished claims made by the poultry industry that antibiotic residues found in Indian chicken were lower than the EU standard and accused it of "misleading" the people.

The CSE reiterated its earlier stand that large-scale use of antibiotics in the poultry industry has led to antibiotic resistance in Indians who are falling prey to many otherwise curable ailments.

"The poultry industry is misleading the public by saying that residues found in Indian chicken are lower than the EU standards," the CSE said in a statement.

"The EU does not allow antibiotic use as growth promoters in poultry," it added.

The CSE said that in India, non-therapeutic antibiotic use, for promoting growth of chicken and to prevent disease even in the absence of it was large-scale.

In such cases, all the chicken in a poultry farm were exposed to a low dose of antibiotics for their entire life span.

"We need to stop non-therapeutic use to prevent emergence and spread resistant bacteria," it said.

The study found that 40 percent of the samples tested positive and residues of more than one antibiotic were found in 17 percent of the samples.

India currently has no regulations to control antibiotic use in the poultry industry or to control sales of antibiotics to the industry.