Researchers at Rajshahi University have produced an antibiotic-free broiler chicken. Named the "Green Broiler", its meat has already become quite popular. A Green Broiler usually weighs 1.5 to 2 kg at 25 to 27 days old, and the researchers claim it is better in taste and quality than an ordinary broiler. They hope it will help meet the protein needs of Bangladesh's low-income population.

Broilers raised on ordinary farms are now touched by poison: antibiotics are used on the farms, and far from doing good, they are breeding serious diseases in the human body and reducing immunity. A team of Rajshahi University researchers is working to produce safe broilers that avoid this risk, and they have already had success.

People involved see the antibiotic-free broiler produced by the university's researchers as good news in the golden jubilee year of the country's independence.

The research is funded by Rajshahi University and led by two teachers of the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Dr Shariful Islam and Dr Hakimul Haque, with a team of scientists. They have been working on it for three years. They started with 250 chickens in the first phase and most recently studied 500 broilers, and that brought success.

The researchers said they use vaccines just as farmers do, but they do not use the antibiotics on the market for disease prevention and fast growth. Instead they use extracts of various naturally available plants, and the chickens grow as fast as ordinary broilers. They said a Green Broiler usually weighs 1.5 to 2 kg at 25 to 27 days.

Researcher Dr Hakimul Haque said antibiotics used for other animals are harmful to our bodies. "Instead we use plant extracts. We use neem leaves instead of deworming drugs, and moringa leaves instead of growth hormones for fast growth. Moringa leaves have antibacterial and growth-promoting properties that also help protect the chickens from disease." He added that the chickens are fed ginger in winter to keep their body temperature right.

The researchers say antibiotic-free broilers have a lower death rate. Team member Dr Shariful Islam said that, like ordinary broilers, the Green Broiler reaches 1.7 to 1.9 kg in 27 days, passes 2 kg by 32 days and weighs 2.75 to 3 kg on the 36th day.

He also claimed the Green Broiler's mortality rate is below 2 per cent. "In the first phase we experimented on 250 chickens, and only five died. In the latest batch of 500, mortality was below 2 per cent."

Asked about costs, Dr Islam said that even without antibiotics, management requires great care and a hygienic environment. "Where other farmers clean every two or three days, we have to clean every day and make sure the environment does not get damp. That needs a little extra manpower."

The customers for the broiler meat produced by the veterinary department's teachers are now the university's own teachers, among them Azizur Rahman Shamim, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy.

He said research has shown that antibiotics are passing into broiler meat and beef and are not destroyed even by cooking, so people are eating antibiotics along with meat. Antibiotics are normally taken in doses, but antibiotics from chicken come with no dose.

Azizur Rahman said taking antibiotics in under-doses has two effects: either the antibiotic will no longer work later, or disease-causing germs in our bodies may take it in and become stronger, leading to antibiotic resistance. He added that eating broilers containing antibiotics causes various problems for pregnant women and children.

Noting that Europe and other countries have already banned antibiotics in broilers, Azizur Rahman said broiler meat is relatively cheap in Bangladesh, so it is on the menu of people of every class. But because of antibiotics, a large share of consumers are losing their immunity.

The researchers say that with government support they are ready to train farmers at district level to produce antibiotic-free broilers. The Green Broiler could then become a role model for protein as the food of the future.

Source: Amader Shomoy. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.