Alternatives to antibiotics: a symposium on the challenges and solutions for animal production

Abstract

Antibiotics are one of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century and will remain an essential tool for treating animal and human diseases in the 21st century. However, antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens and concerns over their extensive use in food animals has garnered global interest in limiting antibiotic use in animal agriculture. Yet, limiting the availability of medical interventions to prevent and control animal diseases on the farm will directly impact global food security and safety as well as animal and human health. Insufficient attention has been given to the scientific breakthroughs and novel technologies that provide alternatives to antibiotics. The objectives of the symposium 'Alternatives to Antibiotics' were to highlight promising research results and novel technologies that could potentially lead to alternatives to conventional antibiotics, and assess challenges associated with their commercialization, and provide actionable strategies to support development of alternative antimicrobials. The symposium focused on the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies that could provide new options and alternative strategies for preventing and treating diseases of animals. Some of these new technologies have direct applications as medical interventions for human health, but the focus of the symposium was animal production, animal health and food safety during food-animal production. Five subject areas were explored in detail through scientific presentations and expert panel discussions, including: (1) alternatives to antibiotics, lessons from nature; (2) immune modulation approaches to enhance disease resistance and to treat animal diseases; (3) gut microbiome and immune development, health and diseases; (4) alternatives to antibiotics for animal production; and (5) regulatory pathways to enable the licensure of alternatives to antibiotics.

Probiotics - the versatile functional food ingredients

“…This has resulted in the general public perception that antibiotic use by humans and in food animals, selects for the development of antimicrobial resistance among food-borne bacteria that could complicate public health therapies. Consequently, there is a need for developing novel intervention methods to deal with this situation and, on this count a potentially efficient and versatile option being the use of probiotics to selectively target pathogenic organisms while avoiding killing of beneficial organisms (Seal et al 2013). …”

A glimpse of the future in animal nutrition science. 1. Past and future challenges

“…Antibiotics are one of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century and will remain an essential tool for treating animal and human diseases in the 21st century (Seal et al, 2013). Not until recently has the obsession of consumer for "healthy" food drawn much attention to the use of antibiotics in livestock (Egger-Danner et al, 2015).…”

“…For this reason, the reduction of therapeutic usage and of nontherapeutic administrations are highly encouraged to delay the development of ARB. In this sense, successful alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters are urgently required to keep high meat production levels without menacing public health (Millet and Maertens, 2011;Seal et al, 2013). On the other hand, there is a strong need for antimicrobial methods with narrow spectrum of efficacy to maintain the safety level of the meat production and selectively act on pathogenic bacteria while protecting beneficial ones (Seal et al, 2013).…”

“…In this sense, successful alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters are urgently required to keep high meat production levels without menacing public health (Millet and Maertens, 2011;Seal et al, 2013). On the other hand, there is a strong need for antimicrobial methods with narrow spectrum of efficacy to maintain the safety level of the meat production and selectively act on pathogenic bacteria while protecting beneficial ones (Seal et al, 2013). Laxminarayan et al (2016) reported the Danish and Swedish exemplary antimicrobial use reduction in the last 20 years without reduction in the size of the meat industry.…”

Effects of medium-chain fatty acids on the structure and immune response of IPEC-J2 cells

“…However, in the last two decades, there is an increasing concern regarding public health due to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Davies and Davies 2010;Heuer et al 2011) besides to the impact on the environment (Kemper 2008). High efforts are carried out in the search of alternatives to substitute or decrease the use of antibiotics in animal production (Allen et al 2013;Seal et al 2013). In pig production, a diverse range of feed additives has been tested like probiotics, zinc, organic acids, plant extracts, microbial by-products or dairy products and others (Roselli et al 2005;González-Ortiz et al 2014;Pluske 2013;Spitzer et al 2014).…”