What are the main methods of adding antibiotics in livestock and poultry feeding?
Adding antibiotics to feed can not only prevent livestock and poultry diseases, but also improve the metabolism of livestock and poultry, promote livestock growth, and increase the survival rate and feed conversion rate. However, due to improper amounts, ways, and methods of addition, some side effects are prone to occur, such as continuous use causing pathogens to develop drug resistance, and antibiotic residues in livestock and poultry products bringing harm to human health. So, how should antibiotics be added to feed?
1. Distinguish between different livestock and poultry species. Different livestock and poultry species, and different growth stages of the same livestock and poultry, have different requirements for antibiotics. For example, feeding sows an appropriate amount of antibiotics before and after mating and farrowing can increase the conception rate, litter size, and weaning litter weight, while the effect of using antibiotics on piglets at 8-10 weeks of age will decline. Likewise, after oxytetracycline is used on adult ruminants, it inhibits the activity of rumen microorganisms, while its effect on young livestock is better.
2. It must be mixed evenly with the feed. When using antibiotics, a premix should first be made and then mixed into the feed, so that it can generally be mixed evenly. It is strictly forbidden to mix pure antibiotics directly into feed, as doing so often causes livestock and poultry poisoning due to uneven stirring.
When adding antibiotics to feed, attention should also be paid to choosing veterinary-specific antibiotics, using fewer or no antibiotics shared by humans and animals, and changing the types and doses of antibiotics accordingly as environmental conditions change, and always paying attention to environmental hygiene and disinfection to further improve the effectiveness of antibiotics.
3. Pay close attention to incompatibility. There are many types of antibiotics sold on the market. If incompatibility is not taken into account when using them, they will not only fail to achieve preventive and therapeutic effects, but may also cause poisoning and death of livestock and poultry. For example, tetracycline antibiotics are incompatible with penicillin, sulfonamides, and chloramphenicol.
4. Strictly control the added amount. For example, when oxytetracycline is used to treat livestock and poultry diseases, more than 0.1% can be added to the feed, while when used as a feed additive, only 10-15 grams need to be added per ton of feed. Some farmers, in order to ensure efficacy, often increase the added amount. Doing so not only increases production costs and enhances the drug resistance of pathogens, but also pollutes the environment and reduces benefits.
5. Strictly control the duration of medication. On the one hand, after an antibiotic is used for a period of time, some pathogens will die, while others will survive, and these surviving pathogens develop resistance to that antibiotic. At the same time, long-term use of the same antibiotic will inhibit the normal growth and reproduction of certain beneficial microorganisms in the intestinal tract. On the other hand, controlling the duration of medication can also effectively limit the amount of drug residues in livestock and poultry products. For example, when oxytetracycline calcium salt is used as a pig feed additive, the medication should be stopped 7 days before slaughter.