PRESS RELEASE
DATE: 24/05/2012
Plant extracts provide natural alternative to antibiotics in animal
feed
The search for nutritive antibiotic alternatives in EU and increased awareness and concern of the consumers,
further encourages the precise research on the possibilities of plant extract use in animal nutrition.
Internationally-recognised natural live stock nutrition expert Biomin prides itself on bringing added value and
sustainability to the local feed market, due to the fact that it completely eliminates all antibiotics from its range of
feed additives and replaces them with natural herbs, spices and plant extracts.
Biomin South Africa chief operations officer Albert van Rensburg says that for more than 25 years, Biomin has
offered sustainable animal nutrition products, such as quality feed additives and premixes which include a natural
growth-promoting concept that addresses dietary requirements for swine, poultry, cattle and aquaculture.
Van Rensburg explains that the main scope in animal husbandry - to ensure good performance of farm animals
and get quality animal products - can only be achieved with the effort to keep the animals healthy. In this aspect,
natural ingredients such as herbs and spices are not just appetite and digestion stimulants, but can, with impact
on other physiological functions, help to ensure good health and welfare of the animals, what can positively affect
their performance.
Advanced products contain both micro-organisms and herbal substances that represent a new generation of
powerful natural health promoters, Van Rensburg explains that when fed at the recommended levels, these
natural substances help to promote the overall health of animals, support the growth of beneficial bacteria, help to
combat stress, provide immune system support and aid in nutrient availability and digestion.
“Consumers are increasingly aware of, and sensitive to, food safety and its linkage with animal production,
including feeding practices. Consumers are not always comfortable with new technologies and fear of the
unknown must be addressed with well-structured risk communication strategies. At the same time, people in
many countries are chronically short of food and there is a need to improve the efficiency of animal production to
provide better access to affordable protein,” he says.
Antibiotic additives
Antibiotics in animal nutrition has become increasingly controversial; however, a large majority of producers
continue to use antibiotics for growth promotion in farm animals, which uses low doses of antibiotics that may lead
to more bacterial resistance than higher doses used therapeutically.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is not a recent phenomenon, but it is a critical health issue today. Over several
decades, to varying degrees, bacteria causing common infections have developed resistance to each new
antibiotic, and AMR has evolved to become a worldwide health threat. With a dearth of new antibiotics coming to
market, the need for action to avert a developing global crisis in health care is increasingly urgent.
Antibiotic resistance can be spread to humans through the consumption of animal products, as well as into soil
and water bodies through animal by-products – including urine and manure – resulting in a greater problem.
Antibiotics may be beneficial in agriculture, but there are growing concerns about the effects of antibiotics in the
environment, especially the possibility of the increase in populations of drug-resistant microbes, which could make
it more difficult to treat diseases in animals and humans.
“This waste may come into contact with humans, other animals, and surface and sub-surface waters through runoff and leaching. The concentrated use of antibiotics makes it more likely to have antibiotic residue and antibiotic
resistant microbes in the vicinity. Since the antibiotics may also be spread throughout the environment via manure
and urine, other microbes that come into contact may also become resistant. This includes not only microbes that
lead to animal diseases but to human maladies as well. Since the antibiotics used for animals are often the same
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for humans, different antibiotics may have to be used to fight the resistant microbes. One possibility to prevent this
particular problem would be to limit the use of ‘human’ antibiotics on animals,” notes van Rensburg.
Natural growth promoting additives
With the increasing controversy around antibiotics, probiotics or microbial feed additives in general have gained
remarkable attention and importance through their obvious positive effects on both productivity and animal health.
“Probiotics consist of viable micro-organisms which improve the balance of the micro flora involved in digestion.
The beneficial gut-flora is boosted and proliferation of disease-causing bacteria is largely prevented. Probiotics or
other natural health promoting feed additives may replace them without reducing performance,” says van
Rensburg.
Through the use of several types of natural growth additives there can be significant benefits to the wider
environment and welfare of the livestock.

The environment: The use of nutritional and many zootechnical additives allow the formulator of
animal feed to deliver the nutritional requirements of an animal in a very precise manner. Ultimately
resulting in diets that can be formulated to minimise waste.

Welfare: Many zootechnical, nutritional and technological additives are used in such a manner as
to improve the nutritional and hence the health and welfare status of the animal concerned. A
reduction in ammonia production from the manure of animals not only improves the environment at
large and in particular in the case of housed animals, but also improves air quality and thus welfare
status of such animals.
For the last decade the use of additives of natural origin in animal and human nutrition has been encouraged and
although herbs and spices were used thousands of years ago for their specific aroma and various medicinal
properties, they are now being added to animal feed as dried plants, or parts of plants, extracts, as well as
essential oils.
Natural health promoters are mainly based on plant substances which favourably influence health conditions or
enhance natural immune functions. While herbal medicine has been practised for centuries and has collected a
profound knowledge, modern nutrition research has only recently started focussing on natural immunity and the
plant substances influencing it.
Ends
Media Contact
Mary-Anne O’Donnell
NGAGE Public Relations
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Email: mary-anne@ngage.co.za
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Director : Denis Laurent Giraudoux (Austria) COO: Albert van Rensburg (South Africa)