How can we help you?

Using green algae, Italian scientists say they’ve developed a new strain of antibiotics that can be used as a growth promoter without the detrimental effects of products that are currently banned in some countries.

“We have discovered a green algae type that only grows in certain bays along the Italian coast that form the basis for a micro bio-chemical factory,” says Philippa so Molto, of the Italian Istituto di Ricerche Scioccheze, Milan.

The investigator and his colleague, Dr. Antonio di Sapientone, inserted genes for production of several different therapeutic proteins that are currently made in yeast, bacteria and mammalian cells.

The resulting “bio-antibiotics” considerably improved feed conversion in broilers, and they do not induce resistance or end up in manure and the environment because they are completely broken down during digestion, according to a report on WorldPoultry.net.

In addition, the production system for the bio-antibiotics does not require expensive laboratory and fermentation equipment, since algae grow abundantly in the saline waters of the Mediterranean Sea and subsist on sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air, the investigators say.

The researchers don’t elaborate on the active ingredients or their manufacturing procedures because they have filed for registration and a patent.

Back to North American Edition (#4)