Duck exports

In a letter to Viva!, Ben Bradshaw MP told us that approximately 5,500 ducks and geese are exported for breeding purposes annually (8).

Cherry Valley is a global exporter, selling its livestock and expertise to over 80 countries on five continents. It claims it is developing the agricultural infrastructure of the third world. Day-old parent stock is air-freighted in specially designed containers, to ensure the birds arrive in peak condition at the customer's farm, less than 24 hours after hatching (1). The Pekin duck you eat in Hong Kong may turn out to be from Lincolnshire, they say (2). And the sales patter continues: 'The unique bank of knowledge built up by Cherry Valley is an important part of the complete package deal available to overseas companies.' (3)

No research has been carried out on the export of live ducklings but it seems likely they suffer the same problems of dehydration as chicks. The term 'day-old' can be misleading as birds, even from the same batch of eggs, do not all hatch at the same moment and some may be considerably older than others. The need for water, followed later by the need for food, increases with age. The older the bird, the more likely it is to suffer from dehydration and/or starvation.

Scientists from Bristol University's Department of Meat Animal Science reported on the mortality associated with newly-hatched chicks going without food and water for up to 48 hours. They concluded: 'This work has demonstrated that large losses in weight may occur while chicks are in transit for periods of time which are likely to be common in commercial practice.' Their research indicated that some chicks suffer serious weight loss and are prone to dying immediately after placement in the sheds (4).

One reason for a high percentage of 'day-olds' dying on arrival was explained in an article published in World Poultry which stressed: 'The condition of the chicks on arrival can be ascertained before placing as severely dehydrated chicks will often seek water and rush to the drinkers, leading to drowning.' (5)

There is no reason to believe that conditions are any better for ducklings than they are for chicks and there has to be great concern that serious problems exist with the transport of ducklings. The reason for there being so little research into duck welfare is that the market is small compared to massive broiler chicken sales.

Export data relating to eggs are not broken down by species and, consequently, it is not possible to provide a figure of the number of duck eggs exported from the UK annually (8).

Varying farm standards

Cherry Valley progeny have permeated even overseas rural communities and are now sold in markets in Asia (6), which now accounts for 80 per cent of world duck meat production (7). One quarter of the 1.3 billion ducks sold in China in 2002 were Cherry Valley ducks. At just one farm at Shanghai, 80 kilometres east of Bejing, 10,000 pure-bred Cherry Valley ducks are hatched every day - all descendants of stock imported from Britain. Each breeding duck produces as many as 185 ducklings to be sold to local farmers and used to produce generations of meat ducks (9).

We do not believe it is a case of 'British good, foreign bad' but standards are likely to be even lower in some markets than those in the UK and this clearly puts welfare at risk.

There are real concerns over the standards of both housing and feed. A report into international duck farming methods by Robert Borrill, a Nuffield Scholar and holder of the Young Nuffield Award, confirms this. It was published in Poultry World, July 1996, and won him a double first. The following quotes are all taken from it.

'There are plenty of leaking roofs and rancid feed, creating high disease in China.'

'Pellets are gaining ground throughout the Far East, but still too much dry, dusty mash and high wastage levels.'

'Housing (in China) ranges from basic overnight accommodation to intensive day-old to death houses with mesh flooring.'

'...virtually 100 per cent nipple drinkers in US where they cannot believe the UK still uses bell drinkers, with all the problems of spilt water, wet litter.'

'Since artificial insemination arrived, hatching rates have more than doubled from 40 per cent to 85 per cent.'

In the Far East, ducks are sometimes integrated with fish farming, the fish consuming duck droppings, but problems are inherent in the system.

'Stock the ducks at 1,500 to the hectare and the pond will produce 10 tonnes of fish a year with no supplementary feeding ... Consumers don't seem to complain about the flavour of the fish, but the industry is concerned about the prevalence of duck viral hepatitis which has closed some multi-age sites.'

'Cash to quit: duck farmers in Hong Kong are being offered money to get out [of duck farming] in a move to curb pollution. On Long Island, USA, duck farms have been blamed for a brown tide of untreated sewage hitting beaches.'

On welfare, Borrill wrote that everyone wanted to know about Defra's welfare code for ducks and other livestock and said that neither Asia nor the USA had seen anything like it. In China he was asked: 'Why should ducks have rights when we humans have so few?' Welfare groups were unknown almost everywhere except for Hong Kong, where the one international organisation was campaigning against the binding of ducks' legs before being marketed.

Often, the practice of artificial insemination involves caging parent stock for ease of identification.

As with other forms of factory farming, there is no solution to welfare problems other than providing conditions that the animals really need. Ducks need water but keeping large numbers of them in static water, as can happen in the Far East, often leads to serious disease outbreaks. On the other hand, depriving them of water is clearly cruel.

References (part five)

1. Cherry Valley, 30 Years Evolution and Revolution
2. The Independent, 21 March 1992
3. Cherry Valley Farms, World leaders in ducks
4. Responses of Newly Hatched Chicks to Inanition, Warris. P.D et al. Veterinary Record, 18 January 1992
5. Losses due to Dehydrated Broiler Chicks, Qureshi, Dr A A. World Poultry, Vol 7, No. 4, 1991
6. Cherry Valley, 30,000 Sales Outlets
7. Poultry World, September 2003
8. Letter to Viva! from Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries, 26 July 2004
9. Well-bred British ducks push locals off the table, Damien Mc Ellroy, The Sunday Telegraph, June 11 2002