Reducing antibiotic resistance through commercialization and adoption of non-antibiotic methods to control bacterial infections in Pakistani poultry

 

The Pakistani poultry industry is the 11th largest in the world and poultry products are a key source of high-quality and accessible protein for communities throughout the country. Currently, the Pakistani poultry industry utilizes significant amounts of antibiotics to control bacterial threats as well as to improve growth efficiencies and maintain profitability. This overuse of antibiotics contributes to the global challenge of antibiotic resistance and, as such, seriously threatens the resilience of Pakistani poultry producers.

Research during the first phase of this project identified safe and effective polyphage treatments that both reduced targeted bacterial concentrations and mortality rates. It also demonstrated that feeding chickens diets supplemented with mango seed kernel extract utilizing an optimized ultrasound-assisted extraction method may enhance chicken growth performance and efficiencies.

The research proposed for this phase is designed to facilitate advancing these phage and nutraceutical prototypes and their combinations to Pakistani markets as new feed additives. A series of large animal trials in Pakistan will also rigorously assess the safety of the different prototypes and their combinations while pursuing scalable purification processes. Additionally, the study will measure the likelihood of adoption of the different prototypes and develop a road map detailing the requirements necessary to market developed prototypes as new animal drugs feed additives. The goals are to reduce the use of antibiotics by Pakistani poultry producers, prevent or control key poultry bacterial infections endemic in Pakistan, and improve the sustainability of poultry operations.

This project is funded under InnoVet-AMR 2.0, a four-year partnership between IDRC and the United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Social Care. The initiative is aimed at reducing the emerging risk that antimicrobial resistance in animals poses to global health and food security.