Selling poultry fed with antibiotics

16-4-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I would like to know whether my business is halal or not. I started a poultry business in my country. There is an issue of using antibiotics in chickens internationally due to antibiotic resistance in humans. We are trying to decrease the use of antibiotics by only using it when the birds need it. However, there is a small amount of antibiotic used in the chicken feed that we purchase from a company to promote better growth of the bird. We do plan to make our own feed without antibiotics in 2-3 years. Please tell me whether my current income is halal or not?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If adding antibiotics to poultry causes harm to those who eat its meat, then, without a doubt, it is not permissible to add them.

As regards the money earned from selling this poultry, then we cannot issue a ruling about it, as this depends on the harm caused to the consumer from it and the extent of this harm, so one must refer to the experts and specialists in the field.

Allah knows best.