We must fix chicken-raising practices

Why isn't there a public outcry over the root cause of the rampant Asian flu virus decimating our chicken and turkeys in Iowa and elsewhere?

You can't raise fowl in metal barns without sunlight and expect them to stay healthy. You can't raise healthy chickens when they are confined to 1.5 square feet per chicken without sunlight by regulation.

It is a breeding ground for disease. The chicken farmers know it and load the chickens with antibiotics to try and prevent diseases, but it doesn't stop a virus.

In turn, we are exposed to antibiotics from consuming the eggs. Our modern chicken raising practices have to be fixed.

We consume 75 billion eggs in the U.S. Over 95 percent are from chickens that never see the sun. Content of vitamin D in eggs has dropped to almost zero unless you buy organic farmyard-raised or EB eggs that claim 80 iu's of vitamin D because they add excess vitamin D to the chicken feed. If we are lucky, we get one-eighth the amount of vitamin D that was found in eggs 60 years ago.

The chickens would be healthier with sunlight and would not need antibiotics.

The Asian flu virus will continue to create epidemics, egg prices will continue to rise and we will not be as healthy as we were 60 years ago.

Thomas Braun

Mount Prospect