BACKGROUNDThe wholesale global broiler market exceeds a staggering USD $87 billion worldwide.1

In a commodity market however, every gram of meat and the efficiency of its production impacts the producer’s bottom line.

Approaches to maximizing yield have traditionally included high quality feed and inclusion of antibiotics to improve animal health and performance. Concerns regarding antimicrobial resistance have nonetheless resulted in expanded regulations designed to minimize or eliminate antibiotic use. The pressure to comply is accentuated by growing consumer preference resulting in approximately 4% higher market prices2 for zero antibiotic poultry production. Major poultry brands are responding: more than half of Perdue’s chickens can be labeled as “no antibiotics ever.”3

Recent studies have demonstrated that Varium™ (Amlan International, Chicago, IL) provides antibiotic-equivalent protection in Eimeria maxima and Clostridium perfringens challenged birds. A follow-up study was subsequently conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this natural, antibiotic-free, growth promoter to deliver similar improvements in feed conversion and weight gain in the absence of a direct bacterial challenge.

STUDY OVERVIEWA study was performed at the Southern Poultry Research Center, Inc. (Athens, GA), to evaluate the benefits of Varium supplementation on feed conversion and weight gain. Three treatment groups receiving a standard diet were evaluated: Control (feed only); BMD (feed plus 55g bacitracin/metric ton of feed); and Varium (feed plus 0.25% Varium supplementation). Each treatment group included eight pens containing twenty male Cobb X Cobb broilers (Cobb-Vantress, Cleveland, GA). All birds were given typical vaccinations and coccidia vaccination on day of hatch, and subsequently monitored over the course of 42 days.

TREATMENT GROUPS

SUPPLEMENTATION PROTOCOL

Control None

BMD Bacitracin at 55 g/metric ton of feed

Varium 0.25% Varium

SOUTHERN POULTRYRESEARCH CENTER, INC.Athens, Georgia, United States

MAXIMIZING BROILER YIELD In the Era of “No Antibiotics Ever”

Technical Bulletin

Volume 500

PATENT PENDING

MORTALITYThere was a 6.25% overall mortality during this 42 day trial with no statistical difference between treatment groups.

DISCUSSIONToday’s producers face the conflicting goals of maximizing meat yield while meeting the demand for “no antibiotics ever.” These findings demonstrate that Varium provides equivalent performance gains without the use of antibiotics. Routine Varium supplementation therefore provides for optimal weight gain and premium price tolerance from an increasingly selective consumer population

STUDY FINDINGS

1 Accessed 20Jul15. http://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/livestock_poultry.pdf2 McDonald, J.M., Wang, SL. Sub-therapeutic Antibiotics and US Broiler Production. 2009. Presented at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association 2009 AAEA/ACCI Joint Annual

Meeting. http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/49198/2/AAEA%20broiler%20STA%20macdonald%20wang.pdf3 Strom, Stephanie. Perdue Sharply Cuts Antibiotic Use in Chickens and Jabs at Its Rivals.

www.newyorktimes.com. 31 July 2015.

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1.67

1.68

1.69

1.70

1.71

1.72

1.731.73

1.69 1.69

Control BMD

FEED CONVERSION

0.25%2.02

2.04

2.06

2.08

2.10

2.05

2.10

2.09

Control BMD

0.25%

WEIGHT GAIN (kg)

©2015, Amlan International 10-2015