Hazards of Using Antibiotic Growth Promoters in the Poultry Industry

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The poultry industry is one of the significant hubs of the livestock industry and the world's largest food industry. In the last 50 years, it has become common to observe poultry antibiotic feeding to treat disease and growth. Antibiotics inhibit the growth of toxic and beneficial microorganisms. They are used as growth promoters when given in adjunctive therapy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that fifty million pounds of antibiotics will be produced each year in the USA. Forty percent of the total antibiotics produced will be used in agriculture. 11 million pounds are used for the poultry sector and 24 million for domestic and wild animals. Ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin, oxytetracycline, tylosin, tetracycline, virginiamycin, tilmicos, nitrofuran and sulfamids are used as growth promoters in the poultry industry globally. Antibacterial residues are found in various parts of poultry birds, e.g., kidney, heart, gizzard, liver, chest, thigh muscles, albumin and egg yolk. These residues may directly or indirectly produce many health concerns in human beings, such as toxic effects in the liver, brain, bone marrow, kidney, allergic reaction, mutagenicity, reproductive abnormalities and gastrointestinal tract leading to indigestion. In addition, resistant strains of pathogenic microbes pose an indirect threat to antibacterial residues that can spread to humans and contaminate residual fertilizers used as plant fertilizers. This chapter describes the benefits and contraindications of antibiotics used as growth promoters and the toxic effects of antimicrobial residues in poultry and humans.