No one can tell you how to raise your animals – your flock, your choice. But if you are looking to go antibiotic-free, are thinking about consumer trends now and into the future, or are just curious about the issue, here are a few things you might want to consider.
Monensin (Rumensin), Lasalocid (Bovatec), Laidlomycin (Cattlyst) are members of a class of antibiotics known as ionophores.
They have been used for over 50 years to improve feed efficiency and prevent coccidiosis. And they work. We know they work.
But 50 years is a long time. Now they aren’t your only choice if you want peak production, efficiency, and healthy animals.
The debate around in-feed antibiotics, including ionophores, is complex and there are no hard and fast answers.
It’s increasingly accepted that antibiotic use in agriculture is a contributor to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This is a process by which harmful bacteria evolve to become partially or completely resistant to the antibiotics traditionally used to treat them.
You might have noticed that some antibiotics just don’t seem to work as well as they used to in people and animals.
Ionophores have largely been treated differently to other antibiotics in thinking about AMR because they;
- aren’t currently used in human health
- have a different mode of action to those other antibiotics.
Accordingly, the “jury was out” on whether they were a contributor to AMR and to some extent it still is.
Maybe the best we can say, for now, is that while using ionophores in animals may not be as clear cut a risk as using, say, Tylosin, an antibiotic critically important to human health, it is equally not without risk.
But if you had a sensible alternative choice, that looked after your bottom line and your animals, why not take it?
All of ProAgni’s products are antibiotic-free and serve a purpose for all times time of the year or weather conditions, paddock feeding or containment feeding.
- Protect C - A pellet designed to be fed to cattle with cereal grain supplements for use in feedlot/drought lots, supplementary feeding or weaning and has the potential to increase growth rates without the use of antibiotics.
- ProTect C Wean - High protein pelleted feed for use during early weaning of calves. Designed for ease of digestion and providing nutritional support, when fed to calves transitioning from milk to grain or grass-based diets.
- ProTect S - Designed to be fed to sheep with cereal grain supplements for use in feedlots/ drought lots, supplementary feeding or weaning and has the potential to increase growth rates without the use of antibiotics.
- ProTect S Wean - High protein feed for use during early weaning of lambs. Designed for ease of digestion and providing nutritional support, when fed to lambs transitioning from milk to grain or grass-based diets.
- ProDry - Moisture resistant loose lick powder for animals grazing on dry pastures and stubbles. This formula aids growth rates, reproduction, overall animal health without antibiotics and reduces methane emissions.
- ProMark - Moisture resistant loose lick powder designed to support the challenging nutritional demands of pre-lambing and pre-calving mothers. Rapid and dramatic changes to nutritional demands occur directly prior to the birthing process, and preparation for these changes is critical for offspring survival, immunity, and vigour.
- ProGreen & ProGreen HiThi - Moisture resistant loose lick powders designed for animals grazing on green pastures and forage crops. ProGreen balances the energy to protein ratio which reduces energy waste and increases the utilsation of every mouthful of feed.
Science aside, increasingly consumers and governments are making their own choices.
The European Union banned the import of meat treated with ionophores in 2023. Meat buyers and processors who export to the EU have responded by not buying that meat or discounting it heavily. The poultry market has gone heavily antibiotic-free first overseas, and more recently here.
If producers can be given alternatives that provide the same production efficiency and animal health without the risk, everyone wins.
It’s always your choice, but today, you do have choices.
This article was written by ProAgni for Seasons magazine.
Please note: this article contains information of a general nature, and does not take into account your personal objectives, situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided, and seek advice on whether it is fit for your circumstances.