Importance of Antibiotics and How Often to Administer them to your Birds

November 18, 2023November 19, 2023 Agric4Profits

Antibiotics are targeted against particular disease conditions and are supposed to be used only when there is such disease at hand. So, it is not supposed to be used routinely. Use antibiotics for your birds only when they are sick and that should be under that supervision of your Doctor/Expert.

However, there are times when antibiotics are used for prevention but even at that, let an expert guide you to know when and the type of drug to use. For some farmers who may wish to know if they can maintain the same type of antibiotics for their birds all through their lifetime.

Please note that even when your birds are sick and you treat them with a particular antibiotics, it is not advisable to repeat the same antibiotics next time when there is need to give them antibiotics and this is because they may soon develop resistance to it therefore administer antibiotics with the knowledge of an expert as to guide you properly on what to do and get it right.

Antibiotics play a crucial role in maintaining the health and well-being of poultry chickens. Just like humans, chickens can fall prey to various bacterial infections that can significantly impact their overall health and productivity.

Administering antibiotics in a responsible manner is essential to prevent and treat these infections, ensuring a thriving poultry population.

1. Disease Prevention: Antibiotics are instrumental in preventing the outbreak of bacterial diseases among poultry flocks. Chickens, especially those raised in close quarters, are susceptible to diseases that can spread rapidly. Administering antibiotics helps create a protective barrier, reducing the risk of infections that could devastate the entire flock.

2. Treatment of Bacterial Infections: When bacterial infections do occur, timely and appropriate antibiotic treatment is crucial. Chickens can suffer from conditions like respiratory infections, enteritis, and other bacterial illnesses. Administering antibiotics helps combat these infections effectively, promoting a quicker recovery and minimizing the impact on the overall poultry population.

3. Enhancing Growth and Productivity: Healthy chickens are productive chickens. Antibiotics contribute to the overall well-being of poultry, promoting optimal growth and development. By preventing and treating infections, antibiotics ensure that chickens can allocate their energy towards growth and egg production, ultimately benefiting farmers and consumers.

4. Economic Considerations: From an economic standpoint, the use of antibiotics in poultry farming is an investment in the long-term sustainability of the operation. Healthy chickens mean reduced mortality rates, lower treatment costs, and improved production efficiency. This, in turn, contributes to a more stable and profitable poultry business.

5. Responsible Antibiotic Use: It’s crucial to highlight the importance of responsible antibiotic use in poultry farming. Following recommended dosage guidelines, withdrawal periods, and consulting with veterinary professionals are essential steps in ensuring that antibiotics are used effectively and do not contribute to antibiotic resistance.

6. Maintaining Food Safety: Antibiotics play a role in ensuring the safety of poultry products for human consumption. By preventing and treating bacterial infections in chickens, the risk of transmitting harmful bacteria to consumers is minimized. This underscores the importance of a holistic approach to poultry health, from farm to table.

3 Main Reasons Why Antibiotics Are Given to Chickens

With all the attention today on antibiotics and the serious issue of antibiotic resistance, it’s important to understand how and why antibiotics are used on the farm.

More specifically, how do antibiotics help chicken farmers deliver on the commitment to provide ethical care and safe, wholesome, affordable food?

While antibiotic resistance is a complex issue, the reasons antibiotics are a necessary and vital part of modern agriculture are simple, straightforward and guided by the belief that antibiotics must always be used responsibly.

The animal health community, farmers and veterinarians collaborated to change how antibiotics are administered in agriculture.

The changes that took effect this year ensure that antibiotics important to human medicine are used only for disease treatment, prevention and control in animals, not growth promotion.

And, treatment often requires a veterinary feed directive essentially a prescription from a veterinarian.

With responsible use as the base, there are good reasons farmers give antibiotics to chickens (and other animals raised for food), food safety included. Let’s explore the top three reasons for antibiotic use.

1. Antibiotics help keep chickens healthy, which helps ensure safe, healthy food

Importance of Antibiotics and How Often to Administer them to your Birds

Antibiotics help make food safe by keeping chickens healthy and reducing bacteria entering the food supply. Consumers can be confident food from animals treated with antibiotics is safe because the Food and Drug Administration has a rigorous approval process for animal medicine, just as it does for human medicine.

The FDA not only examines a drug’s effectiveness, but also confirms that meat, milk and eggs from animals treated with an antibiotic are safe for us to consume, aided by routine testing and withdrawal periods.

There seems to be a widespread misconception that when people eat meat from chickens that have been treated with antibiotics, they are also consuming the medicine with which they were treated. In reality, there are multiple safeguards in place to ensure safety.

Before an antibiotic is approved for use in chickens and other food animals, extensive studies determine how long antibiotics take to leave an animal’s system.

By law, animals given an antibiotic cannot be processed until the “withdrawal period” ends to ensure the antibiotic has left the animal’s body. This is verified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and meatpackers’ routine testing of chicken meat before it leaves the processing plant to ensure there are no unsafe residues.

2. Antibiotics prevent animal suffering

Like humans, chickens sometimes get sick from bacterial infections which can be accompanied by pain and suffering. When a veterinarian can treat sickness to stop suffering, it’s the ethical thing to do.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says antibiotics are one of the most important tools veterinarians use to protect human and animal health. Doctors of veterinary medicine, like medical doctors, work to ensure antibiotics are used responsibly to reduce the risk of resistance.

3. Antibiotics are part of sustainable production

Responsible use of antibiotics helps keep chickens healthy and minimizes the impact on the environment. Left untreated, sick chickens grow more slowly, requiring more food and water.

Then more grain must be grown for feed, which requires more fertilizer, water and acres of land. So, sick birds have a larger environmental impact while healthy ones use fewer natural resources.

Practices that allow us to treat sick chickens, resulting in the use of fewer natural resources, are good for the environment and good for everybody.

Here’s a good example of how and why antibiotics are used in chickens. One of the most potentially devastating diseases in poultry is called coccidiosis, caused by coccidia (microscopic protozoa).

The normal gut environment of a chicken is disrupted, impeding a bird’s ability to absorb important nutrients. This can result in a secondary bacterial infection, unnecessary suffering and even death.

A class of antibiotics called ionophores and another group of medicines, non-antibiotic coccidiostats, are used to prevent this disease and are not used in humans.

Most chickens are given these treatments to prevent this intestinal disease, thus preventing the overuse of potentially medically-important antibiotics in the treatment of sick birds.

Antibiotics are one of many tools veterinarians and farmers use to promote animal health. Their responsible use helps all of us.

The animal health community is working to limit the use of antibiotics, envisioning a future where multiple tools are used to keep chickens and other food animals healthy. We strive to find new solutions, while recognizing there remain times when responsible use of antibiotics is the right thing to do.

In summary, the administration of antibiotics in poultry farming is a strategic and essential practice to safeguard the health of chickens, promote productivity, and contribute to the overall success of poultry operations.

It’s imperative, however, to approach antibiotic use responsibly, considering the long-term health of both the poultry population and consumers.