Breeders ‘Inevitably’ Resort to Antibiotics to Enhance Chick Growth, Prevent Losses

KOMPAS/FAJAR RAMADHAN

A worker harvests broiler chickens in a farm cage in the Bogor Regency area, West Java on Thursday (20/5/2021).

In order to avoid huge losses, DD reviewed the May operational costs of his broiler breeding farm in a village at the foot of Mount Malabar in Bandung, West Java.

He checked invoices listing his purchases of antibiotics, vitamins, liquid disinfectants, feed ingredients and an en route shipment of 8,000 chicks. His sum came to a total of Rp 250 million.

DD is a broiler breeder partnering with poultry company PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk (CPI). DD received the antibiotics, medicines, vitamins, and poultry feed – all classified as livestock production facilities (sapronak) – prior to the delivery of day-old chicks (DOCs) to his breeding farm from CPI.

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Sapronak is included on the company\'s list of receivables that DD must pay for after the chickens are harvested. Once harvesting is completed, DD will receive what is called the “profit of rearing”. He receives approximately Rp 16 million after harvesting the 8,000 broilers he raised.

In addition to his sapronak invoice, he has also received another document with a detailed administration schedule for medicines, antibiotics and vitamins, including their recommended doses.

A TS officer essentially acts to market veterinary products for poultry to partner farmers.

However, the administration schedule, signed by a CPI technical services (TS) officer, contains no information or instructions that antibiotics should be given to chicks that are sick. A TS officer essentially acts to market veterinary products for poultry to partner farmers.

"Now that we have the schedule, we usually just follow what is written there,” said DD.

Kompas/Hendra A Setyawan

Thousands of broiler chickens at a broiler collector in Pegasinan, Gunung Sindur, Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday (22/9/2020).

On Friday morning (28/5/2021), DD gave Noran-200 oral medicine, which contains norfloxacin, to his chicks, dissolving the antibiotic in water to distribute to around 8,000 two-day-old chicks.

DD said he had been anxious about the risks of high deaths among his chicks if they were not given antibiotics, as the mortality rate at his breeding farm once reached over 13 percent.

Of the 8,000 chicks he had at the time, more than 600 died at varying ages. He believed the number of deaths would be even worse without antibiotics.

"Definitely, I’ll keep giving the antibiotics. I don\'t dare to use just medicine [for treating disease]," he said.

The risks of excessive antibiotic use for their chicks are already known to the breeders. Tia, a breeder in Sukabumi regency, West Java, is aware that healthy chicks should not be given antibiotics. However, avoiding antibiotic use did not turn out to be as feasible as she had imagined.

Tia once did not give antibiotics in the first few days after receiving a shipment of DOCs. After four days, the flock started showing signs of disease. She has since fallen back on antibiotics to avoid a repeat situation.

The result is that she has to bear a swelling cost for antibiotics, payable to CPI as its partner breeder. The heavier the chicks, the more the doses she has to give and pay for.

"As the chicks grow to 100 grams from 40 grams when they first arrive, I have to spend 150 percent more on the antibiotics,” said Tia, adding that any delay in administering antibiotics at the beginning of the chicks’ growth phase would result in production output loss.

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So she still gives antibiotics to stem the risk, although she has to take extra caution, such as avoiding the use antibiotics in the fourth growth week. Tia has also chosen to use broad-spectrum antibiotics to deal with all bacteria at one time.

Heredity

One broiler breeding farm that applies strict biosecurity measures is managed by the Tri Group in Rumpin district, Bogor regency, West Java, which still uses antibiotics for purposes other than therapeutic ones.

KOMPAS/FAJAR RAMADHAN

Thousands of chicks are scattered in a closed cage owned by a broiler breeder in Subang Regency, West Java on Monday (24/5/2021).

Veterinarian Aris Kumaidi, who is in charge of production at Tri Group, on May 20 showed the two antibiotic products used at the Rumpin farm, namely Moxacol Forte (amoxicillin) and Colimas (sulfadiazine and trimethoprim).

Aris said the antibiotics were used in the first 3-5 days as part of a “cleansing program”.

“What is the cleansing program? This is because some diseases, apart from being inherited from the parents, may also be contracted during hatching," he said.

This made antibiotic use inevitable in the first days of chick rearing in cages, even in modern, closed cages.

Aris asserted that Tri Group company implemented the recommended measured dosage for antibiotics, saying that the dosage was not calculated by the volume of water but by the weight of each chick, measured in either grams or kilograms.

However, he acknowledged that it was important to try and reduce antibiotic use. "So you see, I still give antibiotics, but [reduced] from maybe five days in the past to only three days [today]. The following afternoon, we apply supplementary therapy," he said

According to TA, a TS officer at a major veterinary drug company in Indonesia, it was almost impossible that broiler chickens were not given antibiotics, because part of the TS role was to ensure that partner farmers continued to use antibiotics.

Like Aris, TA also believed that the DOCs arriving from hatcheries were almost always infected.

There is certain to be bacteria. When the chicks enter a farm, the Metaphylaxis antibiotic [product] is recommended for at least three days. Some [breeders] use it for up to five days.

“The contamination is caused by bacteria such as [Escherichia coli], which is the most common. With the humid conditions in the hatchery room, bacterial contamination is everywhere. It is a filthy room. There is certain to be bacteria. When the chicks enter a farm, the Metaphylaxis antibiotic [product] is recommended for at least three days. Some [breeders] use it for up to five days," he said.

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

Farmers feed broiler chickens on farms managed through a partnership system with companies, Thursday (27/6/2019), in Jogotirto Village, Berbah District, Sleman Regency, DI Yogyakarta.

According to TA, a TS officer was a sales representative and they often gave “gifts” to farmers for using the company’s antibiotics. These gifts came in the form of refrigerators, televisions, and livestock equipment, even a visit to an overseas drug factory.

"That’s how the marketing force works. There must be something like that," he said. (JOG/FRD/DIV/BIL)

(This article was translated by Musthofid).