Navigating antibiotic use in British poultry meat production

A billion birds are reared for food every year in the UK. Safe, affordable and nutritious poultry is half the meat the nation eats, helping to tackle the inequalities of our time while contributing to a liveable climate for all. With that comes a great responsibility, and one we are incredibly proud of. Healthy birds are our most viable asset, so their welfare is prioritised as such. All birds must have good welfare. Our drive for excellence is underpinned by the responsible use of antibiotics and safeguarding their efficacy. Suggesting we do anything but undermines our farmers, producers and the decades of investment and innovation that define British poultry.

Keep welfare a pre-competitive discussion

We have been leading the way in improving the livestock sectors’ understanding of its use of antibiotics since the launch of our Antibiotic Stewardship in 2011. We have facilitated the sharing of best practices on responsible use of antibiotics with other sectors in the UK and around the world.

We are committed to maintaining open communication and an honest dialogue on our antibiotic use and sharing information, best practice and success stories in a pre-competitive way has resulted in our antibiotic use reducing by nearly 80% since 2011. We do not use antibiotics preventatively and zero fluroquinolones were used in chicken meat production in 2022. Our Stewardship data shows a proactive and voluntary approach is not only key to reducing overall use but in preserving the effectiveness of the limited number of antibiotics licensed for use in poultry species. It is clear that what we are doing is working: why fix something that isn’t broken?

Indoor reared poultry feeds the nation

Industry uses various production systems to meet demand for safe, affordable, and nutritious poultry. Around 95% of the birds produced in the UK are reared indoors, or ‘intensively,’ because it is the lowest impact way of producing food people trust and value. ‘Standard’ poultry reared indoors to Red Tractor standard exceeds the legal baseline for animal welfare and makes up most of the market – over 80%. Other production systems, including free range and organic, come at a cost environmentally and in terms of production inputs, hence there is little appetite for it from consumers. Therefore, it only makes up a small percentage of production.

Slow growing production come at a cost

British poultry meat producers are not against using slower growing breeds, but they require more inputs at a time that industry has set its sights on minimising as much as possible to meet our sustainability targets and environmental ambitions. At the same time the cost of production continues to rise. Producers are struggling to see the returns for standard production, let alone free range or organic. As a result, production risks scaling back, paving the way for cheaper imports to fill the gap. These, not produced to the standards British poultry meat producers have worked hard to develop, will undermine the huge strides already taken in animal health and welfare in this country.

Talking about coccidiosis correctly

Coccidiosis is an intestinal parasitic disease extremely common in all poultry worldwide. Coccidia are ever present, which means “unhygienic environments” do not contribute to making birds sick in this context: they are a risk for birds with outdoor access as much as they are for indoor reared poultry.

If coccidiosis is not controlled, it can cause intestinal inflammation in birds and could require further use of critically important antibiotics (which we reduced use of by 98% in 2022). Ionophores are used to control coccidiosis, maintain intestinal integrity, avoid pain and suffering and help deliver good bird health and welfare.

Ionophores are not antibiotics

Ionophores are not antibiotics and they do not contribute to the development of AMR. Ionophores are animal-only antimicrobials that are not classified as veterinary medicinal products under the World Health Organisation and EMA. They are classed as feed additives by the Government’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and regulated by the Food Standards Agency. Ionophores are not used as growth promoters; the use of antibiotics for growth promotion has been banned since 2006.

Producing food people trust and value

Ongoing collaboration with the VMD, Defra and the FSA ensures the data measuring health and welfare of birds is in the public domain. This is something we welcome since ours is an industry that is committed to transparency: everyone deserves to have confidence in their food, including where it comes from and how it is produced. We are proud of the strides made in UK standards of bird health and welfare. We want to continue to evolve to be the best we can be, whilst balancing it alongside our other responsibilities to put quality food on every table. We balance welfare, environmental impact, consumer needs, and the rocketing cost of production, amongst other challenges, to produce food people can trust and afford to standards they know are high quality.