Elizabeth Doughman, editor, WATT PoultryUSA and Poultry Future: Hello and welcome to WATT Poultry Chat. I'm Elizabeth Doughman, the editor of WATT PoultryUSA and Poultry Future.
This Watt Poultry Chat is brought to you by Elanco. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated is a global leader in animal health dedicated to innovating and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets, creating value for farmers, pet owners, veterinarians, stakeholders and society as a whole.
The Elanco poultry team works closely with integrators to deliver comprehensive, data-driven solutions that support bird health and production goals. Through a combination of technical expertise and on-farm support, Elanco helps customers safeguard flock well-being while supporting long-term operational success. Learn more at www.elanco.com.
Joining us today is Dr. Jaime Ruiz, a poultry technical consultant at Elanco, to take a look at how no antibiotics ever (NAE) programs and no antibiotics important to human medicine (NAIHM) programs approach coccidiosis control.
Thanks for joining us, Jaime.
To start our conversation, can you explain the key differences between NAE and NAIHM programs? What challenges in coccidiosis control does each environment pose?
Dr. Jaime Ruiz, poultry technical consultant, Elanco: Thank you, Liz. Thanks for the invitation to be here today. This topic is very important in U.S. broiler production. Basically, we have two different programs that are, very common nowadays in the U.S. industry.
One is called NAE. That stands for no antibiotics ever program. That means that no antibiotics are given to the birds at any point in the production cycle.
And the other types of program that we are going to discuss today are NAIHM programs, and those five letters mean no antibiotics important in human medicine. That means that non-antibiotics important in human medicine are being used in the cycle of broilers that are produced for meat or chicken meat. Basically, those programs are different in the sense that they have different tools to control coccidiosis.
It's important to highlight that the regulations around those programs are different between the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows the use of bacitracin. It's one antibiotic that is critical in these programs, whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe doesn't allow the use of bacitracin. But both Europe and the U.S. allow the use of non-medical important antibiotics, such as avilamycin, which is available in the U.S., in Europe, and in other parts of the world.
NAE programs rely mostly on coccidiosis vaccination and the use of a type of anticoccidials that are called chemical coccidiostats. They also rely on very good nutrition and gut health support. Litter and environmental management are critical in any program, but, in NAE, they are even more critical because we don't have antibiotics and we don't have tools that that control intestinal flora, properly. You have to be very careful that management is very good in NAE programs. Some NAE programs may include other non-antibiotic feed additives such as probiotics, prebiotics and enzymes.
On the other hand, we have NAIHM programs. These programs have the big advantage that you can use additional tools to control coccidiosis. Those tools or products are ionophores and also you can use antibiotics that are only animal antibiotics. That means that are antibiotics that are not being used in human medicine.
But regardless of the production system or the program that we have, either NAE or NAIHM, we have to have good control of coccidiosis challenge. And it's important to keep in mind that when we control coccidiosis, we are not only controlling this parasite, but also by having good coccidiosis control, we close the door to other potential damaging disease challenges, such as bacterial infections.
Those bacteria may include, Enterococcus, Staph, E. coli and even Salmonella. We are not only controlling coccidiosis, we are indirectly protecting birds against other disease challenges that may affect performance
Doughman: In NAE programs, what does an optimal coccidiosis control program look like, and how can integrators make adjustments during peak challenge times?
Ruiz: NAE programs, as I already mentioned, typically leverage on vaccination. That's live vaccines, inactivated live vaccines and attenuated live vaccines. That includes oocysts and chemical coccidiostats.
We have to make sure that those vaccines are given properly to the birds. And not only that, but they have to cycle in a way that they are able to trigger immunity in the birds. You have to have a specific litter conditions. You have to have good environmental management and good ventilation in the houses in order for the vaccine to perform well.
On the other hand, the use of chemical coccidiostats depends on the season. You have to have the right product in the right season and also make sure you do the right rotation of this type of a coccidiostats at the right moment, according to specific challenges depending on the place that your farm or a production system is located.
These are good programs, but they rely on good nutritional practices, good diet formulation, and again, on very good management conditions in the house. Not only ventilation and litter quality, but also management of the environment in a variation of temperatures also. And bird density is very important. You have to have a good bird density when you are in a NAE program.
Some of the critical, points of NAE programs are, first of all, they are more sensitive to management variation. They are more exposed to performance variability. You can have a good performance today and overnight that performance may erode, and it could be different in two or three days or in a very short period of time.
You need to have a better benchmarking in NAE systems, including historical and seasonal benchmarking, because programs can be very variable. During peak challenge periods, that means the time of the year in which we have colder weather in the U.S. – that’s usually between January and March of each year – we have to have better management practices if we have NAE programs.
It is important to closely monitor litter moisture and environmental conditions, and also make sure we are having nutritional adjustments in the diet that are a good fit to the season that we are formulating for.
In every season, we have different challenges and different cocci cycling. Our nutritional programs have to be tailored in order to have the best possible performance and the best possible coccidiosis control in each season.
Doughman: When ionophores are introduced in an NAIHM program, what do we typically see in terms of coccidiosis disease pressure changes?
Ruiz: That's a very important point because when we have NAIHM programs, we have additional tools to control coccidiosis, and one of those tools is the use of ionophores. When we use ionophores in broiler production, we have the big advantage that these products have a wide range of dose usage. That means that we can have flexibility in terms of the dose that we use with these products. That gives us a tool to adjust the level of ionophore that we need according to a specific challenge conditions.
Ionophores help suppress coccidial replication and cocci load in the houses. They provide a very consistent cycling in broiler houses across time, so we have more consistent cocci cycling, and then the challenge would be easier to understand and to manage, and is not as variable as is as it is in the NAE programs.
When we have good coccidiosis control, as I already mentioned, we have the potential to have good control for other diseases. One of these examples are clostridial diseases that, even though the ionophores are not labeled to prevent and control clostridial diseases, by controlling coccidiosis, we can have these types of bacterial clostridial diseases under control just simply because the intestinal mucosal has no disruption and is more healthy in birds that have good coccidiosis control.
In NAIHM systems that use ionophores, we experience less dramatic cocci cycling and we have more predictable performance under pressure year after year. But it's important to highlight that the use of ionophores don't eliminate the need of having a good management and good ventilation and good litter quality in broiler houses.
Doughman: For both NAE and NAIHM environments, what questions should integrators be asking if they are experiencing an increase in intestinal health challenges?
Ruiz: I think most integrators know that the critical questions that we should ask are first, what are the chicken house weights that we have at this moment? Also, what is our livability and mortality? Are there any abnormal droppings in the house or in the litter? What are our house conditions? And what are we seeing in routine posting sessions?
The main questions that I think they should ask are, in my opinion, what is your historical performance on different products and classes? How did you perform on the type of anticoccidial that you had one year, two years, three years ago? That's very important. Is the current program working well? Can you make adjustments to that program? Small adjustments or big adjustments or just change the program? Some small adjustments may include the use of antibiotical programs with ionophores. That's an option that is very common nowadays in the U.S. broiler, industry.
If we make those changes, then we can have improvements that can gain up to two cents per pound live cost in benefit of the integrators. It's important to take into consideration which adjustments we can consider in order to improve, body weights, feed conversion and performance, in general.
How strong is our litter management between flocks? That's also very important. Are you having the right downtime period between flocks? And what do you do to your litter in terms of treatment between those two consecutive flocks? That's very important.
What is your Clostridium load in your specific farm or area? Are you having Clostridial disease challenge in terms of necrotic enteritis or gangrenous dermatitis or is that low at this moment? It's another question to ask because, as I already mentioned, Clostridial diseases are related to good coccidiosis control. If we don't have good coccidiosis control, the likelihood that we have a higher Clostridial disease challenge is very high also and very risky.
How well are we controlling moisture and ventilation in our houses? That's another important question. In most cases, that's a factor that changes every day. So when we have wide variations in house temperatures during the day, for instance, the strategies to prevent and control excessive moisture in the houses is completely different.
We have to make sure that we are doing the right practices in order to, have the best environmental and litter conditions possible to have coccidiosis under control. And also another question is where do I have a challenge? I mean, if we have coccidiosis and we are seeing a challenge, is it on one farm, on two farms, in one region, or is it in the whole complex?
Based on that, we are able to diagnose and to see when and how is the gap for coccidiosis control happening. And how we can make corrective actions in order to have better control and prevention of this important disease. I think those are the most important questions that every integrator should ask and take action before making any decisions associated with the changes in the coccidiosis control program in broilers.
For most of them, they have very good experience not only addressing these questions, but having quick answers that may fit their specific region and challenge conditions.
Doughman: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
Ruiz: Summing up, intestinal health is the foundation of performance, regardless of whether an integrator is operating in an NAE or an NAIHM system. Ultimately, success in either program comes down to proactively managing coccidiosis, protecting intestinal integrity, and using updated data to make informed and timely decisions that may affect performance in a positive way.
Doughman: Thank you so much for sharing these insights. For more information on the solutions discussed here today, visit Elanco Animal Health at www.elanco.com.
Thanks again, Jaime, and thanks to you for tuning in.