Alternatives to Antibiotics for Organic Poultry Production

Abstract

There is a variety of potentially useful ingredients that could be added to the feed or drinking water of a poultry flock to improve production or to reduce the spread of disease. Some of these potential ingredients have been tested in live poultry flocks; others have only been tested in a laboratory without the use of live birds. Most of the potential ingredients need to be more thoroughly tested in live birds and in real production flocks before they are be completely embraced by poultry producers. With current consumer preferences tending toward purchasing products from livestock grown without antibiotics, the ingredients presented in this paper should be studied more thoroughly for the beneficial applications they may have in poultry production.