Poultry Meat Vital to Overcome Protein Deficient: Minister
Vice-Chancellor says no truth in misconceptions; no steroids added to poultry feed
LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Livestock and Dairy Development Asif Saeed Manais has said that use of processed chicken not only adds food safety to chicken meat products but also improves health status of masses.
“Processed meat is ready to cook, hence saves a lot of time of consumers. There is need to spread awareness about the quality and safety of these products and its convenience,” the minister said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of 1st International Conference on ‘Poultry Processing: Farm to Fork Management’, arranged by the Department of Poultry Production of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) and K&N’s.
Vice-Chancellor Meritorious Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Chairman PPA Northern Zone Dr Arshad Hanif Chaudhary, former president Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry Abdul Basit, Khalil Sattar and Conference Organizing Secretary Prof Dr Athar Mahmud were also present. International speakers from the USA, Canada, Thailand, South Korea, Netherland, Malaysia and China and from the poultry industry and universities of Pakistan are attending the conference.
Mr Asif Saeed Manais said that Pakistan is in the list of protein deficient countries and poultry meat is important to overcome this deficiency. “The poultry industry is providing people with high quality protein at a very low cost. Without poultry industry, Pakistan may have a severe nutritional deficiency and price of red meat would be sky high,” he said, adding that Punjab government is trying to ensure provision of safe and hygienic food to people. He lauded UVAS for organizing such an informative conference.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha spoke about misconceptions about poultry meat and said that these are only misconceptions, there is no truth in them.
“I being an animal nutritionist declare with authority and responsibility that no steroids are added to poultry feed and accelerated growth of chicken are due to genetics. If you give same feed to desi chicken, they will never grow like broilers,” Prof Pasha asserted.
He said that UVAS is establishing an export facilitation centre for livestock and poultry industry under a development project funded by the Punjab government. He said that UVAS is working closely with Pakistan Poultry Industry and is partner with them for all scientific developments and achievement this industry has made.
He said that poultry industry is truly a science-based industry and has adopted internationally best practices in most of its value chain. He said that the UVAS’s departments of poultry production, meat technology, animal nutrition, food sciences and veterinary faculty have their own commercial level poultry breeding farms, broiler & layer production and research farms, poultry hatchery, feed mills along with state-of-the-art disease diagnostic labs, animal nutrition and poultry bio-digestibility lab, meat technology lab, sensory evaluation and labs food safety labs, etc.
He said Meat Technology Department is setting up a poultry processing facility at Ravi Campus next year. He said that the purpose of this conference is to educate farmers to produce chicken specified for processing needs keeping in mind the export perspectives, equip processors with latest knowledge and techniques of poultry processing and educate consumers regarding chicken meat quality and to change their perception towards processed chicken meat.
Mr Khalil Sattar from K&N’s gave a presentation on poultry marketing and export related issues. Prof Athar Mahmud also spoke on the occasion. Later, the minister and other guests visited the stalls set up by 25 companies on the occasion. Five technical sessions, 35 presentations on different topics and a mini exhibition are main features of the conference.
Theme of the conference will cover all the major areas of production & nutrition aspects of meat quality, halal slaughtering, food safety measures, capacity enhancement of academia, medicine residuals, poultry welfare during live hauling, poultry product development, shelf life and packaging, poultry meat and consumer health, rendering and waste disposal, etc.
