FACTA and Stephen Shepard, Director, Poultry Animal Welfare Auditing and Training, quoted in Poultry Health Today article: Tossing around the ‘S’ word: What sustainability means to poultry health Excerpt: Consumers have more choices, and producers benefit from higher margins and robust demand for niche products. But is the rise of organic, free-range and antibiotic-free poultry actually making the industry more sustainable? Not necessarily, says Stephen Shepard, a poultry specialist at Farm Animal Care Training and Auditing (FACTA), which audits, assures and implements animal-welfare programs for producers internationally. Shepard supports alternative production practices; in fact, he routinely consults with poultry operations that want to produce birds “raised without antibiotics” — a more accurate description than the popular “antibiotic-free” — to establish successful and sustainable programs. However, he does not believe that approach is necessarily more sustainable than conventional practices. In fact, he says, the risks to animal welfare, food safety and efficiency tend to be much higher in these alternative systems. “The practice of never using antibiotic feed additives results in higher feed conversions, higher production costs and, if not managed properly, more sick birds,” Shepard explains. “This is not only a serious welfare issue, but it also results in a higher bacterial freight for poultry coming into the processing plant, which increases the risk of contaminated meat.” For these reasons, Shepard believes that judicious antibiotic use is critical to both poultry and human health — not only to control and prevent disease, but also to ensure the ethical treatment of animals. But it shouldn’t always be necessary to wait for birds to get sick to start using antibiotics, he says. In many cases, he thinks it is actually more judicious — and more sustainable — to use antibiotics under veterinary supervision before they get sick. “Antibiotic feed additives help maintain a healthy gut by controlling bacteria that are malignant to overall gut health, and a healthy gut leads to better absorption of nutrients,” he reasons. “As a result, we get better feed conversions. And when we get better feed conversions, we promote sustainable agriculture through more efficient land and water usage.” poultryhealthtoday/tossing-around-s-word-sustainability-means-poultry-health/ frostpllc
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:00:52 +0000
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