Herbal remedies offer a path to antibiotic-free chicken farming
Talebi A, Savari A.
Medicinal Plants
The eggs and chicken in your fridge may have been raised with the same antibiotics doctors need to work on humans, and plant-based alternatives could break that link.
Farmers have long added antibiotics to chicken feed to keep flocks healthy and growing fast, but overusing them is creating drug-resistant germs that can spread far beyond the farm. This review rounds up decades of research on using herbs and plant extracts instead, looking at what's already been tried commercially and what still needs more testing. The authors argue that plants are a realistic replacement, but only if scientists and policymakers worldwide coordinate on how to study and regulate them.
Key Findings
Antibiotic resistance in poultry farming is identified as a major threat to human health through spread of resistant microbes and drug residues into the environment.
Multiple commercially available medicinal plant products for poultry are reviewed as practical alternatives to antibiotics.
The authors call for coordinated global 'one-health' efforts between researchers and policymakers to standardize study and application of these plant-based treatments.
chevron_right Technical Summary
This review looks at how herbal remedies could replace antibiotics in raising chickens, since overusing antibiotics in poultry farming is fueling drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans and the environment.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Medicinal Plants in Poultry During Post-Antibiotic Era in One-Health Approach: An Extensive Review.
<h4>Background</h4>Increasing drug resistance, together with possible transmission of these phenomena to other pathogenic agents, as well as the dissemination of resistant microbes and drug residue...
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