Recipes Health and Nutrition Information Safe Food Handling Farmer Profiles On-Farm Food Safety and Animal Care CFC's On-Farm Food Safety Program Code of Practice Animal Care Fact Sheet What Chickens Eat Pullorum Disease Antibiotics: Your Questions Answered Poultry Industry Opinion-Editorial on Animal Care June 2005 Halal Chicken -- Questions and Answers The Story of Chicken Online Publications The Industry Trade Issues Market Information Media Gallery For Kids & Teachers Useful Links Avian Influenza About Us

[ppm:alt id=7250]

[ppm:alt id=7448]

btnChickenGreeting.jpg

btnFunFarm.jpg

btnDearChickenFarmer.jpg

btnGenevaWatch.jpg

Antibiotics: Your Questions Answered

Introduction

Chicken Farmers of Canada has a responsibility to ensure that consumers are informed and aware. We take that responsibility seriously and share it with our government partners in ensuring the safety of the Canadian chicken supply.

Chicken farmers are also aware of consumers’ concerns regarding antibiotic usage in agricultural animals and the potential for antibiotic resistance. Those concerns are shared by farmers – after all, farmers are consumers too.

What is the situation now?

Healthy birds are the only birds that can be in the Canadian food stream. Farmers will do whatever they can to prevent disease, illness, cross-contamination or anything that would put the Canadian chicken supply at risk. 

Antibiotics play an integral role in providing a safe product for consumers, as well as in animal welfare and in animal health. Before we implement a regulatory ban of antibiotics, we must conduct full-scale reviews to ensure that there are alternatives to ensure animal health, welfare, food safety, human health and productivity to the same degree as we have now, or better.

Antibiotic use in chicken production is for the treatment of birds, to prevent loss and to prevent any potential food safety problems. A strictly-controlled amount of antibacterial preparations may be included in chicken feed to prevent disease. A preventive micro-dose eliminates the need for larger doses. Essentially, If there’s a potential for birds to get sick, a farmer may choose to use a preventative dose of antibiotics to ensure that the bird is healthy rather than have to use a far more powerful antibiotic to cure an illness.

What is CFC’s position?

Currently, CFC supports the judicious use of antibiotics and encourages farmers to consult veterinarians and follow prudent-use guidelines when selecting and administering medication. However, CFC is also actively supporting research into alternatives and the judicious use of antibiotics, with a goal to reducing overall antibiotic use.

We are also supporting the efforts of researchers who are requesting the ability to  import alternative products for research purposes, so that we can examine new methods to reduce antimicrobial usage.

We are lobbying heavily to ensure that the government only allows the importation of poultry products that meet the same standards as are applied in Canada, specifically in regards to approved antibiotics and alternative treatment products.

What are farmers doing now?

The Canadian public is well served with our on-farm food safety model that helps all the links in our industry be responsible and accountable. CFC has taken the leadership in the creation of its mandatory on-farm food safety program, called Safe, Safer, Safest, to combine good production practices and internationally recognized principles into chicken production.

The program involves a food safety manual, third-party validation of on-farm practices, and recognition by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Stringent record keeping is an important component of on-farm food safety and allows Canadian chicken farmers to participate in quality control, traceability, and disease control. An important part of the Safe, Safer, Safest program includes a flock sheet, which serves as the farmers' assurance to the other links in the food chain that the birds have been produced in accordance with the strictest government and industry guidelines and regulations.

Farmers use the flock sheet to record specific information about such things as feed, any medications used, number of birds placed, etc. A preliminary sheet is sent to the processor ahead of the flock shipment and the complete information is sent on a flock sheet with the shipment itself. In the case of particular medication usage, the withdrawal time must be recorded with the name of the vet who prescribed the medication and the date for the prescription. Treated birds can not be marketed until all of this information is received.

CFC believes that this type of record keeping is probably the most important element of the program as it can ensure traceability, and of course, quality control.

Implementing good production practices and other procedures in our program, in concert with our current policy and the research we support, will ensure that the needs and concerns of our consumers are being met.

Chicken Farmers of Canada: 350 Sparks Street, Suite 1007, Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7S8 Tel: (613) 241-2800 Fax: (613) 241-5999 Email: cfc@chicken.ca