"No Antibiotics Ever" - NAE meats trend in worldwide markets

The tag ‘No antibiotics ever’ (NAE) is making giant strides in markets worldwide as consumers are placing a high demand on meats of such disposition. 

These demands are not met with insufficiency as producers are producing it in high quantity to meet the demands with the United States of America (USA) fronting the noble cause. Production of such meats is however not easy as there has to be precision in animal management and bio-security. 

In a discussion organized by the Perstorp (a feed additive company), a group of panelists which included Sam Rochell (assistant professor at the University of  Arkansas), Philip Smith (nutritionist at Tyson Foods), Everton Krabbe (from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation in Embrapa, Brazil) and Professor Chuck Hofacre (the executive vice president of the American Association Avian Pathologists), a round-table discussion on the state of the poultry industry without the use of antibiotics. 

There was unanimous agreement that the application of NAE will rapidly increase in the coming years as over 50% of poultry producers in the USA have adopted it.

Brazil is also a top adopter of the NAE philosophy with some producers having moved some 15 years ago when the current trend was not yet mainstream. The legislation which bans the indiscriminate use of antibiotics will also contribute in speeding up the transition into the NAE era.

“This transition is not without its challenges,” cited Everton Krabbe. Even with good bio-security and animal husbandry techniques, there is still a chance of having over 2% higher mortality rate and some declines in feed conversion in poultry.

Nutritionist, Philip Smith stated that the rapid transition which began in 2015 led to a challenge in tackling necrotic enteritis and coccidiosis.

Prof. Hofacre revealed that the first year of transition is usually the easiest, as there is still a residual effect of antibiotics from the previous flock which turns out a relatively good flock. 

However, in the coming years after the effects of the antibiotics might have waned, the farm takes a downward turn. It takes a few bad flocks after this before the farms adjust to the new situation.

The difficulty in tackling coccidiosis with the NAE philosophy is shown in the fact that producers now have to compensate for the lack of antibiotics and take extra care of bio-security. The producers also have to switch to new coccidiosis prevention techniques and vaccines, the development of which takes time.

Feed producers are currently on the hunt for replacements to antibiotics using feed additives. He mentioned that there is no definite replacement for antibiotics, but a combination of additives which take climate and other conditions into account should be used. Birds should be kept healthy, instead of looking for options to fix them.