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Antibiotic Resistance
Reduced sensitivity to non-therapeutic antibiotics, plus the concern that feeding these drugs to poultry and livestock may increase the risk for antibiotic-resistant infections in people, is initiating significant changes in the poultry industry.
For many years, antibiotic growth promoters and ionophore anticoccidials, which have antibacterial action, have had the inadvertent benefit of controlling a variety of diseases in poultry. With prolonged use, however, antibiotic resistance has developed, minimizing their effectiveness.
Though controversial, there is also concern that antibiotic-resistant infections in poultry and livestock could transfer to people, which has already prompted European regulators to ban the use of several in-feed antibiotics in food animals.
A similar movement is under way in the United States, where it has largely been instigated by consumers and is evidenced by the soaring growth of organic poultry sales.
In addition, U.S. legislators have proposed The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which would prohibit the use of several non-therapeutic antibiotics in food animals.
These trends are prompting an increasing number of poultry producers to search for alternative methods of disease control, such as vaccination, better quality nutrition and other management changes.
Click on the links below for more information:
- FDA/CVM updates: Antimicrobial resistance (Link)
- European Union bans antibiotics for growth promotion (Link)
- Combating resistance: Vaccination seeds houses with oocysts that are sensitive to commonly used in-feed coccidiostats (Link)
- Gold Kist veterinarian focuses on coccidiosis vaccination to give ionophores and other drugs a much needed rest (Link)
- European study backs earlier works in US showing that coccidosis vaccination restores Eimeria sensitivity (Link)
- Holland’s Wil Landman and Herman Peek talk about their interest in Eimeria, concerns about resistance and next steps for improving control (Link)
- Antimicrobial growth promoters used in animal feed: Effects of less well known antibiotics on gram-positive bacteria (Link)
- Bacteria resistant to powerful antibiotics are discovered in chicken feed (Link)
