Alternatives to Antibiotic Growth Promoters in Poultry, A Peruvian Experience

Even though antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) are allowed to be widely used in the Peruvian poultry industry, some big broiler and layer companies have started new approaches in order to replace the AGP by novel alternatives like nutraceuticals, which include probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids and their salts and plant extracts among others.

This new trend reveals the awareness of the threat of irrational use of antibiotics in food animals which are dangerous for human health (public concern) and showing the importance that how poultry and livestock are raised.

We in VHD Sanidad Animal started to move toward this trend in 2012 when signed an agreement with XVET Germany in order to introduce it´s products as AGP alternatives (NAGP).

Fortunately, XVET products like Turbo Tox and Ovostrong have proven outstanding performance, replacing and beating AGP results successfully.

Some broiler companies accustomed to use AGP have risen millions of broilers with Turbo Tox with excellent cost/ benefit ratio.

We expect more opportunities to come in the near future for XVET products in Peru. It will depend on many factors: public awareness on antibiotic resistance, national regulatory policy on this matter, and most important, the compromise of the Peruvian poultry industry to do its best in this challenge.

By Dr. Victor Hugo Dávila

Ambassador for lessantibiotics.com