Antibiotics in Feed - The need for a viable alternative
In some countries antibiotics are used as feed additives in intensively reared animals, especially pigs and poultry. They act as growth promotants as well as in the treatment or prevention of specific diseases. Australia imports approximately 700 tonnes of antibiotics per annum of which 1/3 are for human use and 2/3 are for veterinary use, predominantly in intensively farmed food producing animals.
The use of antibiotics in animal feeds has received increasing international attention as a contributory factor to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. These antibiotic resistant bacteria or ‘Superbugs’ are a major human and animal health problem worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several international government reports have identified the need to phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promotants in food producing animals. Sweden stopped using growth promotants in 1986 and claims that reduced antibiotic use in animals has resulted in a reduction in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in animal bacteria. The European Union has now banned in-feed antibiotics and in the USA only four are approved for use. Several antibiotics have been suspended from use in countries around the world, or withdrawn by manufacturers in response to these concerns.
An Australian report on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals released by the Joint Expert Committee on Antibiotic Residues (JETACAR) in 1999, recommended “That where the intensive animal industries (such as meat chicken, pig, feedlot cattle and aquaculture) currently depend on the use of antibiotics to improve feed conversion and prevent and treat disease, cost effective non-antibiotic methods to increase productivity and prevent disease should be developed by these industries.
Restrictions on the use of antibiotics in feed in intensive pig and poultry production increases the market potential of Imugene’s Poultry Productivity Enhancer.