More intensive industrial production has placed greater demands on birds and given rise to several challenges related to gut health, including unspecific dysbiosis problems, reduced nutrient digestibility and impaired barrier function. These issues put pressure on farm profitability and explain, at least in part, the motivations for sub-therapeutic application of antibiotics for disease prevention and growth promotion.

A recent scientific study notes that the poultry industry’s global consumption of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) is three times higher than that of cattle: 45 mg/kg vs 148 mg/kg (Van Boeckel et. al. 2015). Without indicating any relationship between resistance level and antibiotic usage, Teillant and Laxminarayan (2015) point out that recommended dosage of sub-therapeutic antibiotics has increased over last 60 years, from 10–20 g/ton in the early 1950s to 40–50 g/ton in the 1970s, to 30–110 g/ton nowadays.

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