The chickens that roam freely at households in Zimbabwe and other developing nations may have a connection to stunting, which limits the physical and mental development in children. Two Johns Hopkins researchers who work with Zimbabwean children say the link could be that children ingest bacteria-laden bits of chicken droppings from the occasional moment of eating dirt, says the Economist. The researchers presented their idea in the journal Maternal and Child Health.
There is some supporting evidence – child nutrition programs have limited success in reducing the prevalence of stunting and stunting rates in Ethiopia were higher in households that kept poultry indoors. The researchers suggest microbes of the sort found in chicken droppings can reduce the intestine’s ability to absorb nutrients and can create gateways for microbes of all sort to seep into the bloodstream, where the immune system uses up nutrients to fight them.
UNICEF estimates that 39 percent of children under age 5 in the developing world, 209 million in all, are stunted. Two-thirds of them are in Asia. “Once established, stunting and its effects typically become permanent,” says UNICEF. “Stunted children may never regain the height lost and most will never gain the corresponding weight. And when the window of early childhood is closed, the associated cognitive damage is often irreversible.”