CAIRO: A social media video clip showing poultry breeders carrying out mass cullings of young chickens due to a lack of feed has sparked controversy and anger in Egypt.
The videos showed a group of people putting birds inside a sack and then closing it, with one of them commented during the recording that “the sacks must be closed so that the chicks die quickly.”
The footage caused outrage on social media, with many users saying the act was a crime that deserved punishment.
Others demanded that the government intervene to save the poultry industry, which is currently in crisis as a result of the lack of chickenfeed.
“Unfortunately, the scenes are real, because there is no feed to feed them,” said Tharwat El-Ziny, vice president of the Egyptian Poultry Producers Association.
The head of the Poultry Division of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, Abdulaziz Al-Sayed, described the problem as a “disaster.”
He claimed that the situation — greater than the bird flu crisis — threatens Egypt’s entire poultry industry.
Reacting to the videos, El-Sayed El-Quseir, minister of agriculture and land reclamation, said some people were trying to exaggerate the issue.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting to discuss solving the problem of the domestic feed shortage in the presence of the agriculture minister.
During the meeting, EPPA officials and other poultry producers presented their monthly needs for various feeds, noting that making the required quantities available would contribute to eliminating the black market.
Madbouly said more work should be done to expand contract farming, particularly for the soybean crop.
