By Bruce Cochrane.
The Head of Perdue University's Animal Science Department says as a result of ongoing pressure to reduce antimicrobial use in livestock production, we're headed into a new era of feed and alternatives to antibiotics.
In both Canada and the United States there's been ongoing pressure to reduce the amount of antimicrobials used in feed, particularly for growth promotion but even for prevention of disease.
"Alternatives to In-Feed Antimicrobials: Options, Limitations and Opportunities" was discussed last week as part of the 2017 Manitoba Swine Seminar.
Dr. Alan Mathew, the Head of Purdue University's Animal Science Department, says concerns over antibiotic resistance that can spill over into human therapies is the driving factor.
Dr. Alan Mathew-Perdue University:
Some of the strategies that have been around for awhile, while they may see like they're not emerging, they still are.
For example, in a probiotic realm, we now have new microbiology tools that can help us better understand how probiotics work and how we can make more effective probiotics but on the horizon we see some new strategies, some of which have been looked at for many years, like egg yolk antibodies but they are becoming more effective.
We better understand how they work and how they can be applied and so we see that as a growing area as well.
Essential oils is another area.
There's a lot of exploration into those products.
Typically they're plant based.
They have some subtle effects on the gut microbiota, they may help with palatability and intake which is very important in getting young pigs off to a good start and they may help reduce some of the E. coli overgrowth that seems to be occurring when those pigs are troubled nutritionally.
Dr. Mathew says, with the Veterinary Feed Directive in the United States, there certainly will be less use of these products so we are headed into a new era of feeds and alternatives to antibiotics.
Source: Farmscape