Faccenda Foods has reduced antibiotic usage on its farms by 70% over the past two years, in collaboration with poultry vets St David’s Poultry Team, by adopting a holistic approach with natural remedies.
Working across all 80 of the firm’s farms, St David’s looked at innovative ways of maintaining the health of the birds on farm, while limiting the need for medication.The vets introduced bespoke management practices to maximise bird health, starting by treating new-born chicken with probiotics to encourage healthy gut development.Richard Turner, director at St David’s Poultry Team, explained: “We call this approach seed, weed and feed.“We seed the gut with healthy bacteria using probiotics, weed out ‘bad’ bacteria and feed the ‘good’ bacteria with natural acids. The more healthy bacteria there are in the gut, the more competition there is against the bad ones which cause sickness.”Following the protocols’ successful outcomes over the past five years, St David’s recently launched a new company, called Applied Bacterial Control, in order to work with farmers to reduce antibiotic usage across all livestock sectors.David Neilson, general manager for chicken agriculture at Faccenda, said: “It’s like a Holland & Barrett approach to bird health.We use essential oils, oregano and garlic: If the chickens get an upset tummy we use natural oils to help them recover, rather than going straight in with antibiotics.”However, Neilson warned against any drive for completely antibiotic free production, adding: “Our antibiotic use is so low it’s almost unmeasurable, but if the birds need antibiotics to protect their welfare they must receive them.“Our bird health and productivity is significantly better under this new approach – ultimately their welfare is the key to the whole system.”Faccenda has adopted a similar approach across its duck and turkey farms, and the wider industry has also been working to reduce antibiotic usage since 2011, when the British Poultry Council launched its antibiotic stewardship scheme.Headed by Faccenda’s agricultural director, Reg Smith, it aims to encourage the recording and reduction of antibiotics in poultry farms across the UK.
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