Poultry giant Faccenda Foods has slashed antibiotic usage by 70% over the past two years by using natural remedies, it claims.
The processor has worked with poultry vets at St David’s to try to cut the use of antibiotics across all of its 80 farms.
As part of the strategy, Faccenda treated newborn chicks with probiotics to encourage healthy gut development, added natural acids to its water to keep it clean and added yeast extract to its chicken feed to “bind any bad bacteria in the gut and reduce the risk of infection taking hold”.
A similar approach has also been adopted across Faccenda’s duck and turkey farms.
David Neilson, general manager for chicken agriculture at Faccenda, described the strategy to a “Holland & Barrett approach to bird health”.
“We use essential oils, oregano and garlic. If the chickens get an upset tummy we use natural oils to help them recover, rather than going straight in with antibiotics,” he said.
“Our antibiotic use is so low it’s almost unmeasurable, but if the birds need antibiotics to protect their welfare they must receive them. Our bird health and productivity is significantly better under this new approach - ultimately their welfare is the key to the whole system.”
The poultry industry has been working on this issue since the British Poultry Council launched an antibiotic stewardship scheme in 2011, and slashed its use of the drugs by 44% between 2012 and 2015.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a world human health issue,” said Richard Turner, director at St David’s Poultry Team. “Antibiotic use in agriculture is also a growing concern for consumers so it’s really important that we focus on it.”
The news follows the launch of a major new retail survey on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in supermarket meat by the Food Standards Agency, which aims to “fill the evidence gap” in understanding antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Due to start between August and September, the survey will sample about 300 retail chicken samples and 300 retail pork samples across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, alongside 40 retail chicken and 40 retail pork samples in Scotland.
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