Work

Treatment, promotion, commotion: antibiotic alternatives in food-producing animals

Year: 2013

Type: review

Abstract: Alternatives to antibiotics are urgently needed in animal agriculture. The form these alternatives should take presents a complex problem due to the various uses of antibiotics in animal agriculture, including disease treatment, disease prevention, and growth promotion, and to the relative contribution of these uses to the antibiotic resistance problem. Numerous antibiotic alternatives, such as pre- and probiotics, have been proposed but show variable success. This is because a fundamental understanding of how antibiotics improve feed efficiency is lacking, and because an individual alternative is unlikely to embody all of the performance-enhancing functions of antibiotics. High-throughput technologies need to be applied to better understand the problem, and informed combinations of alternatives, including vaccines, need to be considered.

Source: Trends in Microbiology

DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2012.11.001

Authors: Heather K. Allen, Uri Y. Levine, Torey Looft, Meggan Bandrick, Thomas A. Casey

Institutions: Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, National Animal Disease Center

Language: English

Topic: Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Zero hunger, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $7,030