by guest blogger, Dr Kylie Hewson* The viability of the Australian chicken meat industry depends on the implementation of good welfare practices every day, for every flock, and this has been recognised since the start of the commercial industry back in the 1950s. Not only do farmers have an obligation to protect and respect the [...]
“What’s this got to do with chickens?” I hear you say. Well, in some parts of the chicken production business, quite a lot! Why? Because it’s one of the many biosecurity measures that may be implemented by industry to protect flocks from infectious disease. What’s biosecurity? From a chicken industry perspective, biosecurity refers to a set of preventative [...]
How many times have you heard it reported that Australia is in the grip of an obesity epidemic? Well, to help to address this, this week (13 – 19 February) the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) is organising online initiatives and a series of activities around Australia in support of Australia’s Healthy Weight Week (AHWW).
With Christmas and a new year just around the corner, it seems a good time to remind readers of some of the key facts about Australian meat chickens, including what they look like and how they are reared. Since this is about the chickens themselves, I’m going to focus on four key facts […]
by Guest Blogger, Kylie Hewson There are many myths surrounding chicken meat, and keeping with the theme “Raw is Risky” for Australian Food Safety Week (6 – 12th November), which is coordinated by the Australian Food Safety Information Council (AFSIC Food Safety Week), we’ve decided to focus this month’s Chook Chat blog on those myths [...]
With National Nutrition Week (including World Food Day – 16 October) just around the corner (National Nutrition Week 16-22 October), it’s a perfect opportunity to remind readers of the nutritional attributes of chicken. So, what’s so great about chicken? And what role does it have as part of a healthy balanced diet? The most [...]
The simple answer to this commonly asked question is: “both”. Both male and female chickens are used to produce chicken meat. That’s the case right around the world. Unlike the case for the egg industry, where only hens are required to lay the eggs that are sold for human consumption, both male and female meat [...]
In 2016, Australian chicken farms will produce over 590 million meat chickens. But where do they come from? It may be obvious, but it’s something most people don’t think about – every meat chicken has a set of parents, and those parents have their own parents, and so on up the line. But where are [...]
OK – what do you think this is? And what’s it got to do with chickens? Well, it’s a great but simple piece of technology that is used right across the chicken industry and which has helped to significantly improve the environment and welfare of millions of meat chickens grown in Australia every year….in fact [...]
Do you ever take some chicken out of the freezer to defrost before leaving for work in the morning, only to get home and not feel like cooking? I know I do! A question we get asked often is whether it is safe to put the defrosted chicken back into the freezer, and the answer [...]
