Poultry industry's antibiotic use misunderstood by the public

Much of the public's concerns over antibiotic use in poultry production today is from the public not understanding the methodology of treating a flock, instead of individual animals, according to Dr. Randy Singer, associate professor with the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Minnesota. "A poultry house  is a house of many individuals, but you treat them as a flock," said Dr. Singer.

Much of the public's concerns over antibiotic use in poultry production today is from the public not understanding the methodology of treating a flock, instead of individual animals, according to Dr. Randy Singer, associate professor with the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Minnesota.

"A poultry house  is a house of many individuals, but you treat them as a flock," said Dr. Singer. "And yet, there seems to be this assumption that since you don't go out and give individual antibiotic treatments, that you are giving something wrong, or there's something bad about how you're using the antibiotic - you're just giving it indiscriminately to many individuals to that house who could be healthy at the time."

Dr. Singer said that antibiotic use in disease prevention and control is critical to maintaining flock health as part of a recent  discussion, "The role of the Veterinary Feed Directive -  The future of antibiotics in poultry production ," presented by WATT Global Media  and sponsored by Zoetis, examined the role of the Veterinary Feed Directive in meeting the public's expectations and addressed the directive's proposed changes and their effects on the poultry industry.

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