Do Chicken Eaters In Australia Run Risk Of Sex Change?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 9, 18 October 1948, Page 5

Do Chicken Eaters In Australia Run Risk Of Sex Change?

Men who eat chickens fattened on artificial sex hormones run the risk of developing female characteristics, according to a solemn warning given at the annual meeting of the Victorian Health Inspectors’ Association in Melbourne. Mr Bernard Heath,, public analyst, told the meeting that use of the artificial hormones had been banned in America, because they caused unnatural sexual development in men who ate ■ the birds. Sydney poultry experts discounted the danger, saying that men would have to eat the treated birds almost every meal to become affected. If any man did notice a sexual change after eating the birds continually, he would only have to-stop eating them to return to normal. They admitted some poultry farmers around Sydney were using artificial sex hormones to fatten their chickens, but said the male population should not start worrying about developing female characteristics. An offcial at Glenfield Agricultural Research Station said experiments conducted at the station had not been conclusive. “Experiments showed that the artificial hormones have a slight' effect on animals eating the treated birds,” he said. An examination of rats fed on the fat of treated chickens revealed that there was a slight carry-over of the hormones, but a man would have to eat a lot of birds before he turned into a boy soprano.