ISSUE FOCUS 24 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE September 2023 Due to still rising antimicrobial resistance, consumers push for meat production without antimicrobial usage. However, antibiotic reduction must also target ionophores for producers and regulators alike. As a natural solution, phytomolecules might be the optimal completion to current coccidiosis control programs and create opportunities to make poultry production more sustainable by reducing dependency on harmful drugs. THE FUTURE OF COCCIDIOSIS CONTROL Twan van Gerwe, Ph.D. Technical Director EW Nutrition Madalina Diaconu Product Manager Pretect D EW Nutrition With costs of over 14 billion USD per year (Blake, 2020), coccidiosis is one of the most devastating enteric challenges in the poultry industry. With regard to costs, subclinical forms of coccidiosis account for the majority of production losses, as damage to intestinal cells results in lower body weight, higher feed conversion rates, lack of flock uniformity, and failures in skin pigmentation. This challenge can only be tackled, if we understand the basics of coccidiosis control in poultry and what options producers have to manage coccidiosis risks. CURRENT STRATEGIES SHOW WEAK POINTS Good farm management, litter management, and coccidiosis control programs such as shuttle and rotation programs form the basis for preventing clinical coccidiosis. More successful strategies include disease monitoring, strategic use of coccidiostats, and increasingly coccidiosis vaccines. However, the intrinsic properties of coccidia make these parasites often frustrating to control. Acquired resistance to available coccidiostats is the most difficult and challenging factor to overcome. Optimally, coccidiosis control programs are developed based on the farm history and the severity of infection. The coccidiostats traditionally used were chemicals and ionophores, with ionophores being polyether antibiotics. To prevent the development of resistance, the coccidiostats were used in shuttle or rotation programs, at which in the rotation program, the anticoccidial changes from flock to flock, and in the shuttle program within one production cycle (Chapman, 1997).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==