Gavage technique for foie gras production Jerry ? on Visualhunt President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned this Friday (24) a bill that prohibits the production and sale of products obtained through force-feeding animals. Among them is foie gras, a French dish made with fatty duck or goose liver. The rule, published in the Official Gazette of the Union, specifies that the ban includes the production and sale of foie gras, both fresh and canned. Anyone who fails to comply with the rule may be punished with imprisonment from three months to one year, in addition to a fine, as provided for in the Environmental Crimes Law for cases of animal abuse. ?? The technique used to produce foie gras is known as gavage. It consists of forcing the animal to eat more than it would naturally consume to increase the size of its liver. To do this, a metal tube is inserted through the bird's throat into the esophagus, where the feed is supplied. Trending videos on g1 The procedure is usually carried out twice a day in the two to four weeks before slaughter. "This causes a series of injuries to the animal's throat, esophagus or even face and beak," explains George Sturaro, director of public policy at the NGO Mercy For Animals. According to Sturaro, the liver can grow up to ten times its normal size, which can cause pain, changes in metabolism and heat stress in birds. Furthermore, there is another aggravating factor: the process is often not carried out correctly, which causes even more injuries to the animals. "You see that the birds even run away when the employee arrives, because it has become violent handling, they are not careful when carrying out the survey", says Patrycia Sato, president and technical director of Alianima. Gavage, force-feeding technique Mercy for Animals / disclosure According to the project's rapporteur, deputy Fred Costa (PRD-MG), the technique can increase the mortality rate of animals by up to 25 times. Without this method, there are still no commercially viable alternatives for producing foie gras, says Sturaro. However, some options are being studied, such as cell cultivation in the laboratory and plant-based products. Read also: Chocolate or ‘chocolate flavor’?: new law sets rules and defines categories; see which ones are Brazil ahead Now that the text has been sanctioned, Brazil will be the second country to ban the production and sale of products obtained through force-feeding animals. The first was India. In the case of production, other countries have already adopted similar restrictions, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia and Argentina. "Brazil is actually ahead of many countries, including those that are generally pioneers in animal welfare practices", says Sato. The bill was presented six years ago in the Senate and was processed conclusively by the committees — that is, it did not need to go through the plenary, explains Natália Figueiredo, public policy manager at World Animal Protection Brazil. According to Figueiredo, the French embassy asked for support from the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) to prevent the project from also banning the import of products made with the technique. g1 contacted the FPA and the French embassy, ??but did not receive a response until the publication of this report. Internally, the project went through without obstacles, since Brazil only has three producers that use the gavage technique. "And it's a delicacy, it's a very expensive food, it's elite. So, there's also no such thing as taking away food from Brazilians," says Sato. MORE