TUCKER, GA. — New research released on Dec. 11 indicates further improved antibiotic stewardship and commitment to disease prevention within poultry production, announced the US Poultry & Egg Association.

Randall Singer, DVM, PhD, from Mindwalk Consulting Group LLC and the University of Minnesota led the project. The report represents a 10-year set of data collected from 2013 to 2022 for US broiler chickens and turkeys as well as a seven-year set of data collected from 2016 to 2022 for layers.

The new report provides an update on research from 2013-2021 that was released in December 2022.

“USPOULTRY’s board of directors has supported this research for more than a decade, and it emphasizes the continued focus on the judicious use of antibiotics in the poultry industry,” said Nath Morris, president of USPOULTRY. “We are thankful for the long-term involvement of so many members in this study.”

One key finding among broiler chickens is the number of chickens receiving antibiotics over the 2013-2022 period decreased from 90% to less than 1%. Medically important in-feed antibiotic use in broilers also dropped significantly. There was no reported in-feed tetracycline use from 2020 to 2022, and virginiamycin use fell 97% over the 10-year period. Medically important water-soluble antibiotic use saw a substantial drop from 2013-2017 and has increased slightly since then. The report noted that increases were typically due to risen disease incidence during the 2019-2022 period.

Turkeys receiving antibiotics in the hatchery decreased from 97% (2013) to 38% (2022). Hatchery gentamicin use fell by nearly 50% during the 10-year period. Medically important in-feed antibiotic use in turkeys fell substantially, with in-feed tetracycline use dropping over 75%. The report found that medically important water-soluble antibiotic use in turkey decreased from 2013-2019 and then stabilized or increased slightly from 2019-2022.

Finally, the report touched on changes in antibiotic use among layer chickens between 2016 and 2022, noting that the hens typically begin laying eggs around 20 weeks of age and end when the layer hen is around 80 to 100 weeks old. Little antibiotic is used in US table egg production considering most antibiotics that could be administered to layer hens have withdrawal periods that would prevent all eggs produced during the period from entering the food supply.

All chicks in the dataset received gentamicin in the hatchery at day 1 of age. The only medically important antibiotic used in layer hens for treatment and control of disease in this dataset was chlortetracycline (CTC). CTC was used in part for its zero-day withdrawal, meaning that there is no loss of eggs during the treatment period. According to the report, CTC was only administered via the feed in pullets (day 2 through 16 to 18 weeks of age) and layer hens. Over 95% of the CTC was used in layer hens for treatment of disease.

USPOULTRY said it will continue to support Singer in the annual collection of data from the poultry industry.