UVAS conducts research on safe meat production

Keeping in view the problems associated with antibiotics and antimicrobials use in the poultry feed, a solution-oriented research was conducted in the Department of Physiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, to evaluate the production enhancing potential of galacto-oligosaccharides in broilers with an aim to provide antibiotics/antimicrobials free meat to the consumers.
This research clearly demonstrates that galacto-oligosaccharides can be used to substitute antibiotics/antimicrobials in poultry feed and, therefore, can ensure the provision of safe meat to the consumers. According to Professor Shahbaz Yousaf and Professor Dr Habib ur Rehman department of Physiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, different concentrations of galacto-oligosaccharides were supplemented in antibiotics and antimicrobials-free feed of broilers.
They said that results of the research showed that tested pre-biotic improved the performance parameters of broilers in a dose dependent manner. Best performance was observed when galacto-oligosaccharides was supplemented at a dose of 5g/kg of poultry feed. The galacto-oligosaccharides supplementation also potentiated the immune system of the birds. In addition to these, it was noted that supplementation increased the number of Lactobacilli, a group of gut-friendly bacteria.
They also said poultry meat was one of the most economical sources of animal protein for human beings. To cope with ever-increasing human population and demand for animal protein, poultry industry is expanding day by day. Modern technologies have been adopted to fulfil the requirements of fast growing broilers that include; feed processing, environmentally control housing and automation in feeding systems etc. These technologies brought clear differences in poultry growth compared with the past. Despite all, modern poultry production was facing problems like diseases outbreaks and hygienic issues during meat processing.
In the past, poultry feed was fortified with low concentrations of antibiotics/antimicrobials to control the diseases outbreaks and contamination of meat during processing. It was an excellent approach but, later on, these feed additives were banned globally due to emergence of drug resistant microbes that were important for human health. Consequently, production of broilers became poor due to diseases outbreaks and high death rate.
This issue provoked the poultry scientists and industrialist to search for an alternate of these additives that should be safe for consumers. Therefore, prebiotics, probiotics, phytobiotics or organic acids in poultry feed were evaluated to overcome the existing problems that showed variable degree of success in improving production.