Actions to be taken to reduce antimicrobial usage on poultry

farms.

Diarmaid Kirby.

Western Brand Agricultural Manager

There are two main periods when antimicrobials are administered to poultry:

• To resolve day old issues

• To deal with wet litter/enteritis in the grower stage

What factors have an input in modifying usage at these times?

• Quality of Day Old.

• The Environment.

• The Feed.

• Use of Nutraceuticals.

The grower has varying levels of control over these imputs

Improving Quality of Day Old chicks delivered to farm

This starts at breeder farm.

Chicks from parent stock with higher health status will have a lower bacterial challenge when hatched.

If breeders have better gut health there will be a reduced bacterial load on surface of the egg leading to reduced bacterial challenge/yolk sac infection when hatched.

At Western Brand we have begun administering organic acids to all our breeders to

improve intestinal health, and overall health, of the parent stock.

Improving Quality of Day Old chicks delivered to farm

Treatment of eggs will have a big impact on bacterial levels and subsequent challenge

to chicks.

In an ideal world only eggs laid in clean nest boxes would be brought to hatchery.

Western Brand are not yet in a position to not accept floor eggs but we would like

to get there.

Western Brand do not accept any eggs which can only be cleaned by immersion in

washing solution. Washing eggs transfers bacteria among eggs and the heating and

cooling causes bacterial ingress to interior of egg.

Improving the Environment.

This will have its chief impact in reducing antimicrobial usage in grower stage.

By far the greatest challenge at this time is dealing with enteritis/wet litter

and the resultant welfare issues.

Most enteritis of broilers is not “infectious” but is “physiological” in response to stressors. The bacteria implicated are not novel bacteria. Most are present in intestinal tract of both fit and diseased birds but some stressor causes changes in balance between the desirable ones and the less desirable ones towards the latter.

Antibiotics can be an effective treatment for enteritis at this time but it is important to address the underlying issue to prevent recurrence in subsequent flocks.

Improving the Environment

This will have its chief impact in reducing antimicrobial usage in grower stage.

By far the greatest challenge at this time is dealing with wet litter and the resultant

welfare issues. Wet litter and resultant pododermatitis are the biggest challenges facing most poultry growers.

Improving the Environment

Improving water quality.

At Western Brand we have found water quality to be imperative in reducing enteritis and antimicrobial usage. We encourage all our growers to use products for maintenance of water hygiene. We have found Hydrogen Peroxide potentiated with silver compounds solutions to be most effective in this regard both during and between batches. Sodium Hypochlorite solutions can also be effective if used for maintenance but we have not found them to be as effective in breaking down biofilm and they are more pH dependant. Broiler houses are ideal environments for growth of biofilm in waterlines. This should be removed at turnaround by effective flushing with higher concentrations of peroxide based cleaner.

Western Brand perform regular checks on water quality on all farms including broilers and parent stock.

Improving the Environment

This slide demonstrates falling antibiotic usage on a farm where water hygiene had

previously been an issue. A continuous pumping system using Hydrogen peroxide

potentiated with silver compounds solution was installed on this site at the end of 2014.

Improving the Environment

• Disinfection between batches.

Thorough cleaning and disinfection is an absolute requirement for Western Brand broiler growers between batches. This prevents harmful bacteria being transferred between batches and reduces levels of coccidia in environment.

Cleaning and disinfection is subject to independent auditing on all our farms.

• Ventilation.

Getting the ventilation right will often have the single biggest impact in improving litter quality. It’s worth reiterating that I see poor litter as both a cause and effect of enteritis.

Unfortunately improving the ventilation tends to mean increasing the ventilation. This has the effect of cooling the house inappropriately. Unlike our colleagues in Northern Ireland who, with the help of state support, burn large amounts of Biomass we need to balance ventilation requirements with cost and sometimes we get this wrong.

Improving the Environment

There are numerous other areas where major or minor adjustments in environment will affect litter quality.

The type of bedding placed first day will have an effect. Despite numerous trials we have not yet found the optimum bedding but we have found the worst to be straw. None of our growers may now use straw at brooding time.

A very small adjustment in drinker line height can have an effect on litter quality. It pays to be a fussy chicken farmer.

We also don’t recommend using equipment, especially drinkers, beyond its recommended lifespan. We will assist any farmers in preparing grant applications to replace aging equipment.

Improving the Environment

Last but not least I should mention Biosecurity. The common reasons we need to use

antimicrobials are present in most chicken houses and only become a problem if in excess but keeping any novel disease out of the house will have an overall help in reduction in antimicrobial usage as well as being the first line of defence if exotic disease threatens.

Improving the Feed

Optimising diet will have an impact in reducing antimicrobial usage especially in regards to

wet litter/enteritis. Legislative strictures lead to some dietary challenges: i.e. Formulating diets for omnivores not containing animal proteins or oils. Challenge is to improve performance without resort to these sources.

Documented that in terms of intestinal health

Maize Wheat Barley Oats Rye

Good

Bad

Improving the Feed.

It is increasingly important that any poultry production company has a close trusting relationship with their nutritional advisors.

Nutrition company must:

• Guarantee the quality of the raw ingredients • Oversee the milling. • Formulate the premix to include appropriate enzymes to improve

digestibility • Use appropriate coccidiostats. • Add mycotoxin binders if deemed necessary. • Provide an excellent follow-up and investigative service to assist vets and company personnel in investigations.

Use Of Nutraceuticals

This is deliberately kept until the end of this presentation as spending money and time administering nutraceuticals will be of little value if any of the factors discussed before now are substandard.

• Probiotics are among the more commonly discussed means of antimicrobial reduction. • These may take the form of competitive exclusion products which contain a complete gut microflora from healthy chickens to occupy all available ecological niches and preventing colonisation by more pathogenic bacteria in time of stress. • They may also be combinations of specific bacteria chosen for their proven ability to improve intestinal health and production. • Probiotics may be given to day olds, after intestinal upset or after antimicrobial therapy

Use Of Nutraceuticals

If chick quality is sufficient that no antimicrobials are needed early in life it offers a great opportunity to administer probiotics in hatchery. Western Brand have recently taken delivery of one of first gel applicator machines for hatchery probiotic administration which will be in use from Monday 5th December.

We have done extensive trials into what products we can use to support this desirable bacterial population. This is part of the “seed, feed and weed” concept Developed by St Davids, our veterinary partners. We have found both essential oil based programs and programs based on combinations of organic acids to have benefits. From 5th December the gut health of all birds we oversee will be will be supported by organic acids unless there are factors within the house which preclude their use. We may use essential oils in that case.

Other nutraceuticals which can have benefits include fimbrial blockers. We are examining their use in our parent stock and may add them to diet.

Summary

In the post antibiotic era, which the poultry industry is entering, it is becoming increasingly important to get the basics of husbandry right. Antibiotics will no longer be available to compensate for poor farming practices.

Nutraceuticals are not a panacea for all problems. If other factors are optimised they will have distinct benefits but these benefits will be overwhelmed by if there are deficiencies elsewhere.

An overall improvement in ventilation which could best be carried out with grant-aided biomass systems would have the single biggest effect in reducing wet litter and antimicrobial usage. This would also level the playing field north and south of the border for broiler production. Education/training and increasing overall understanding of the reasons behind the need to reduce antibiotics are important for our growers and is supported by Western Brand through the Knowledge Transfer programme as well as in-house training with our veterinary partners St Davids

THANK YOU