Animal Welfare

Goose Husbandry in Hungary

Goose fattening is a traditional activity in Hungary. From the 1960’s goose breeding has been divided to meat and liver production. From the 70’s the government had invested money on the development of the sector, and because of the dynamic development has started. From the 80’s Hungary became the leading fois gras exporter of the world, and the second exporter of goose feather after China.

Utilization of goose:

• Meat production
• Feather production
• Foie gras production

In 1994 small scale farmers kept the 70 % of the goose stock in average 40 geese /farm. Large scale farms kept 14 000 animal/farm.

Practice of breeding animals’ husbandry:

• Deep litter system, with hatchery usually they have access to the yard, sometimes they have artificial bathing area.
• Young breeding animals 3 month before egg production go through a special preparation period: food deprivation and light program “train them” for the production
• Before egg production animals are plucked three times
• Egg laying period is at springtime, common practice to generate a second egg laying period with light programs
• Usually 2-3 geese/m2 is the density level, if insemination is natural, 4-6 females are together in a group with one male.

Practice of meat production:

Practice of Fois Gras production:

• Only healthy animals can be used for this, which never had any disease or weakness during their lifetime.
• Animals are kept intensively, 5-7 geese /m2.
• Deep litter system, or cages are common
• Sweetcorn and water based feed is used
• At the begining of the procedure the diameter of the pipe is about 16 mm, than it goes up till 27 mm
• The pipe is pushed down till the end of the animals trachea and as it is slowly pulled up, with the help of the pneumatic system the feed is filling up the trachea.
• Basic element of the technology, that the digestive system should be under continuos pressure while the animal is force fed. This result can be achieved with the continuos increase of the number of force feeding and the dosage of the fodder. At the beginning animals are force fed 2-3 times a day, later on the number of occasions can go up to 6-8.

Feather production:

Feather can be obtained from:

• Carcasses
• Live animals

Feathers from live animals are considered better quality.

Plucking is a traditional activity in Hungary, and it is based on the natural moulting character of the water birds ( wild geese do moulting through a longer period of time because of flying but the domestic geese do in quicker and more often than the wild ones). Plucking can only be done when the geese start to moult, which is visible from the increasing amount of feathers on the ground of the barn. In Hungary geese are plucked 3-4 times a year.

Plucking can only be done in dry, warm weather conditions.

• The animals should be fed well before and after the procedure, to encourage the growth of the new feathers.
• Animals should be placed into a clean, fresh bedding before the plucking.
• Plucking should be done in relaxing conditions, because of stress and fear in the animals could make the plucking of feathers more difficult (as the result of the stress and fear, the feather becomes more attached to the skin).
• Feathers can only be plucked from the breast, the belly, the back and the phylum of the animal. No plucking can be done on the wings, the head and the neck plus the tail.
• Feathers should be pulled out in the direction of growing and not against it.
• Geese that were born in springtime are plucked at 9-10 weeks old and it is repeated after 6-7. weeks.

Foie Gras production

Fois Gras production is a massive and obviously cruel trade in Hungary, which is quite clearly condemned by the EU public and the Comission as well (Directive 88/306 EC concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes. Reccomendations concerning the keeping of domestic goose). According to the Commission’s suggestions force feeding should be phased out 15 years, and the currently operating plants should be strictly controlled. Countries involved in the trade should invest in scientific investigations into alternative methods. Basic problems with Foie Gras production are:

• Animals confined in cages cannot perform natural behavior
• The pipe used for force feeding can injure the throat and trachea of the bird. There is also a risk of tearing the organ apart.
• As the effect of force feeding, chronic gluttony develops in the animals.
• In later stages of the force feeding cycle, animals are panting, breathing and moving becomes very painful and difficult for them.
• Post mortems showed, that as the side effect of force feeding, animals can suffer from cardiac and renal failure.

Feather plucking (General problem with water birds, that most of them are kept in conditions with no bathing facility. According to the EU staandards water birds should have access to water).

 Very stressful for the animals

• High possibility of injury

In: Status of Farm Animals, Hungarian report, 2002, CIWF, Written by Virag Kaufer