Raising chickens with less antibiotics

Eugene Chua tried being a contract grower for San Miguel for a year with 32,000 heads at his two "tunnelized" poultry buildings in Tanay, Rizal. Being a contract grower, he is duty-bound to abide by the feeding schedules and medication protocols set forth under his agreements with the integrator. This involves, as a standard operating procedure (SOP), feeding the birds with antibiotics from day one to "flush out toxins in the bird’s body," he said.

The poultry business used to produce 60-day chickens, which later became 45 days and now 32 days. The shorter production period is a result of better feed formulation with a lot of artificial growth enhancers and a lot of antibiotics to prevent respiratory diseases in chicken or inhibit their growth.

Antibiotic doses increase progressively with the weight gain of chickens. Its administration stops only five days immediately preceding dressing.

But what actually happens is that all the antibiotics fed to the chicken from day one to the five days immediately preceding the dressing remains in the intestines of the chicken, which eventually are transferred to humans, he explained.

Products with high antibiotic residues are now being banned by most developed countries since they are said to cause cancer and other dreaded diseases in humans.

Chua said antibiotics are fed to chicken whether or not they are infected with the chronic respiratory diseases or show "symptoms of flu" since mucus accumulation in chicken causes loss of appetite.

Abrupt changes in temperature in Tanay, where Chua’s farm is located, pose a great challenge to poultry growers like him since chickens are prone to flu or chronic respiratory diseases.

"The birds just sit down and refuse to eat such that by the 25th day, we pull them out and separate them from the others to prevent the spread of infection," he said.

At 21 days, the normal weight of a bird is 800 to 900 grams going up to 1.4 kilos by the 28th day. Those with CRD do not grow anymore and stay at 1.4 kilos until 32 days, when they are slaughtered. Contract growers normally feed higher doses of antibiotics (which are more expensive) in the hope that they recover. More often than not, the chickens don’t recover at all, he said.

Last April, he started experimenting. He maintained giving antibiotics to the chickens in one building but in the other building he fed the chickens with Exquisite BD soil conditioner, which is being exclusively distributed in the Philippines by Chong Ken Foo of Exquisite Focus.

The chickens fed with Exquisite soil conditioner in their water were: bigger in size; had no mortality (unlike those fed with antibiotics) and they mature faster. Cost-wise, giving antibiotic was slightly cheaper but because of the high mortality (and revenue losses), antibiotic sustenance was a less viable option.

He said he opened up a 30-day old chicken to see the changes in organ development using Exquisite. "The gizzard was still small compared with the bird’s overall physical development; even though mucus was contained in the throat area, this did not prevent the bird from having such good appetite; there were no lacerations in the stomach (typical of a bird fed with constant doses of antibiotics) and the intestines were cleaner."

An earlier experiment using Exquisite soil conditioner on poultry was done by Dr. Hermana Banciles of Quirino State College, who also noted the high mortality in chickens using antibiotics.

"In December 2004, the college was alarmed with the high mortality rate of chicks in the poultry farm due to the cool weather. After reading the literature on Exquisite soil conditioner – a probiotic that is good not only for plants but also animals–an experiment (of 50 birds given Exquisite and another 50 birds used as control) was made mixing 10 grams of soil conditioner in 40 grams of water. The solution was given to the chicks for the entire experiment," she said.

The result was remarkable: no more deaths. The birds were also found to be resistant to diseases and regained their agility as evidenced by their improved growths. "From then on, the solution was continuously administered to all the birds in the farm," she said.

Also, the birds fed with Exquisite grew to 1.69 kilos in less than 36 days compared with 1.2 kilos mean weight of birds "not treated with Exquisite."

She said the amount P800, which should have been used to buy feeds for 50 birds that used Exquisite for the remaining nine days before they reach marketable weight, was saved because they reached that size earlier.