What are the precautions for adding antibiotics to feed
Adding antibiotics to feed can not only prevent livestock and poultry diseases, but also improve the metabolism of livestock and poultry, promote their growth, and increase the survival rate and feed conversion rate. However, long-term, large-scale, continuous use will produce drug resistance and leave residues in livestock and poultry products, bringing harm to human health, and has already been rejected by antibiotic-free products. Therefore, when adding antibiotics to feed today, even more attention should be paid to the amount, method and approach of addition, so as to reduce the harm of antibiotics to a minimum.
????1. Types of addition
When adding antibiotics to feed, attention should also be paid to selecting antibiotics specifically for animals, using few or no antibiotics shared by humans and animals, and changing the types and doses of antibiotics accordingly as environmental conditions change, always paying attention to environmental hygiene and disinfection, so as to further improve the effectiveness of antibiotics.
2. Amount added and degree of uniformity
For example, when oxytetracycline is used to treat livestock and poultry diseases, 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 amount added. Doing so not only increases production costs, enhances the drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria, but also pollutes the environment and reduces benefits. When using antibiotics, a premix should first be made and then evenly mixed into the feed, which generally allows for uniform mixing. It is strictly forbidden to mix pure antibiotics directly into feed, as doing so often causes livestock and poultry poisoning due to uneven mixing.
????3. Time of medication
An antibiotic will develop drug resistance after being used for a period of time, and long-term use of the same antibiotic will inhibit the normal growth and reproduction of certain beneficial microorganisms in the intestine. Strictly controlling the time of medication can 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, medication should be stopped 7 days before slaughter.
????4. Incompatibility
There are many types of antibiotics sold on the market. If incompatibility is not taken into account when using them, not only will they fail to achieve a preventive and therapeutic effect, but they may also cause poisoning and death of livestock and poultry. For example, tetracycline antibiotics are incompatible with penicillin, sulfonamides, and chloramphenicol.
????5. Distinguish among categories
Different species of livestock and poultry, and different growth stages of the same livestock and poultry, have different requirements for antibiotics. For example, feeding pigs 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. Similarly, after oxytetracycline is used on adult ruminants, it will inhibit the activity of rumen microorganisms, while its effect on young livestock is better. Liang Xiaoqin