Academic study into using antibiotic growth promotants in poultry and egg production

A new academic study has been started to demonstrate something that all free range egg farmers know – that cage egg production is more efficient than free range. Keeping animals And birds in climate controlled sheds and feeding highly processed food is vastly more p[rofitable than letting livestock behave naturally – which is why there are so many feed lots and high density factory farms. Researchers at The University of Sydney, say that free-range broilers and layer hens are less efficient converters of feed into saleable meat and eggs, and generally have higher mortality than poultry reared in sheds. A new Poultry CRC project led by Dr Aaron Cowieson (Director of the University of Sydney’s Poultry Research Foundation) aims to establish the principle reasons for the observed performance gap between free-range and intensively reared hens. The project will evaluate various feed alternatives to reduce the differences in performance. It will also look at the lack of antibiotics in feed given to free range birds and their access to range. This seems to suggest that antibiotic growth promotants are widely used by cage and barn laid egg producers - something the industry has frequently denied.