Alternatives to Antibiotics: A Symposium on the Challenges and Solutions for Animal Health and Production

Abstract

Antibiotics have improved the length and quality of life of people worldwide and have had an immeasurable influence on agricultural animal health and the efficiency of animal production over the last 60 years. The increased affordability of animal protein for a greater proportion of the global population, in which antibiotic use has played a crucial part, has resulted in a substantial improvement in human quality of life. However, these benefits have come with major unintended consequences, including antibiotic resistance. Despite the inherent benefits of restricting antibiotic use in animal production, antibiotics remain essential to ensuring animal health, necessitating the development of novel approaches to replace the prophylactic and growth-promoting benefits of antibiotics. The third International Symposium on “Alternatives to Antibiotics: Challenges and Solutions in Animal Health and Production” in Bangkok, Thailand was organized by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University and Department of Livestock Development-Thailand Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative; supported by OIE World Organization for Animal Health; and attended by more than 500 scientists from academia, industry, and government from 32 nations across 6 continents. The focus of the symposium was on ensuring human and animal health, food safety, and improving food animal production efficiency as well as quality. Attendees explored six subject areas in detail through scientific presentations and panel discussions with experts, and the major conclusions were as follows: (1) defining the mechanisms of action of antibiotic alternatives is paramount to enable their effective use, whether they are used for prevention, treatment, or to enhance health and production; (2) there is a need to integrate nutrition, health, and disease research, and host genetics needs to be considered in this regard; (3) a combination of alternatives to antibiotics may need to be considered to achieve optimum health and disease management in different animal production systems; (4) hypothesis-driven field trials with proper controls are needed to validate the safety, efficacy, and return of investment (ROI) of antibiotic alternatives.

Oral Delivery of Bacillus subtilis Expressing Chicken NK-2 Peptide Protects Against Eimeria acervulina Infection in Broiler Chickens

“…Diversified approaches based on nanoparticles, natural polysaccharides, bacteria, and phages have been reported as promising delivery vehicles for AMPs (23,24). Among these AMP delivery systems, B. subtilis has shown unique properties as an effective carrier for AMPs in previous studies with fish, mice, and swine (14,17,18).…”

Growth Performance, Meat Quality and Antioxidant Status of Sheep Supplemented with Tannins: A Meta-Analysis

“…Although some review articles have suggested that the presence of TANs in the diet may negatively affect DMI in ruminants [ 1 , 9 , 57 ], in the present meta-analysis no changes in DMI were observed in response to dietary supplementation with TANs. This absence of changes in DMI probably occurred because the average dose of TANs used was 19.29 g kg −1 DM and negative effects of TANs on intake seem to occur with doses higher than 50 g kg −1 DM [ 4 , 9 , 12 ]. Similar to our results, two previously elaborated meta-analyses reported that dietary supplementation with TANs at average concentrations of 9.5 and 14.61 g kg −1 DM did not significantly affect DMI of dairy cows in production and beef cattle, respectively [ 31 , 32 ].…”

“…However, the inappropriate use of these products results in an accumulation of toxic residues in meat, which can affect the health of the consumer [ 2 , 3 ]. In addition, the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to the antibiotic effects [ 4 ] as well as the prohibition of these compounds in some countries [ 5 ] have led the industry and researchers to search for alternative products with similar effects as antibiotics, but of natural origin. Tannins (TANs), which are derived from plants, have received special attention and are among the most studied bioactive compounds, particularly in ruminants [ 1 ].…”

Antibiotic Resistance: From Pig to Meat

“…As discussed in several other literature reviews and articles [146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154], numerous other alternatives to antibiotics have also been explored, such as the addition of proteins, fibers, amino acids, enzymes, organic acids, essential oils, antimicrobial peptides, egg yolk antibodies, and spray-dried plasma to animal feed. Finally, it is interesting to note that several of these alternatives have also been explored for humans [146,147] and that research in animals and humans is mutually supportive.…”