Why Are Poultry Given Antibiotics And What Are the Reasons?

1. Why Are Poultry Given Antibiotics And What Are the Reasons? With all the attention given to antibiotics today, and the troubling problem of antibiotic resistance, it is important to understand how and why antibiotics are used in the field. In particular, how do antibiotics help chicken farmers to provide healthy, wholesome, affordable food and ethical treatment? While antibiotic resistance is a complex issue, it is clear, straightforward and driven by the conviction that antibiotics must always be used safely, the reasons why antibiotics are an essential and vital part of modern agriculture. There are good reasons why farmers give antibiotics to chickens (and other animals raised for food) including food safety, with responsible use as the base. Let's discuss three of the top explanations for using antibiotics.

2. Antibiotics help to make food safe by keeping the poultry healthy and growing bacteria entering the food supply. Consumers should rest assured that food from animals treated with antibiotics is healthy because the Food and Drug Administration has a stringent approval process for animal medicine, just as it does with human medicine. The FDA not only checks the efficacy of a drug, but also guarantees that eating meat, milk and eggs from animals treated with an antibiotic, followed by routine testing and withdrawal time is safe for us. There seems to be a widespread misconception that when people eat meat from antibiotically treated chickens they often consume the medicine they were treated with. In fact there are several safeguards in place to ensure security. Extensive studies determine how long antibiotics take to exit an animal's body before use of an antibiotic in chickens and other food animals is allowed. Animals receiving an antibiotic cannot be treated by law until the "withdrawal period" is over to ensure that the antibiotic has left the body of the animal. Until reaching the processing plant, the Department of Agriculture and Meatpackers verifies routine inspection of chicken meat to ensure that the contaminants are not harmful. In some cases, like humans, chickens get sick from bacterial infections that can be followed by pain and suffering. It's the ethical thing to do when a doctor will handle illness and stop the suffering. The American Veterinary Medical Association says antibiotics are one of the most important tools used by veterinarians to protect the health of poultry. Physicians in veterinary medicine, as physicians in medicine, are working wisely to ensure that antibiotics are used to reduce the risk of resistance. Thus, the health of chickens can be learned from poultry accounting software. Responsible use of antibiotics helps keep chickens healthy and reduce the environmental impact. Left untreated, sick chickens grow slower, requiring more food and water. More grain for feed, which requires more fertilizer, water and acres of land, is then needed to grow. Hence, ill birds have greater environmental effects while healthy birds use less natural resources.

3. Practices that allow us to handle sick chickens are good for the environment and good for everyone, resulting in the use of fewer natural resources. Here's a good example of how Chickens use antibiotics, and why. One of the most potentially devastating diseases in poultry is coccidiosis, caused by coccidia (microscopic protozoa). The natural gut environment of a chicken is disrupted and hence impedes a bird's ability to consume sufficient nutrients. This may lead to secondary bacterial infection, unnecessary suffering and even death. To prevent this disease, the antibiotic class known as ionophores and another form of medication known as non-antibiotic coccidiostats are used and are not used in humans. Most poultry are given these medicines to prevent this intestinal disease, thereby preventing the overuse of potentially medically useful antibiotics in the care of sick birds. Among other approaches used by veterinarians and farmers for improving the poultry health are antibiotics. We just share equal use. The animal health community is working to reduce antibiotic use and envision a future in which many resources are used to maintain healthy chickens. They strive to find new solutions while acknowledging that there are periods when the right thing to do is to use responsible antibiotics. So start now by developing a counter-strategy to overcome these problems, and it's yours to be successful. To find out more information like this go to the POLITRY CARE website.