Interview to Dr Haldar: "the use of antimicrobials can be avoided"

I think the most debated issue nowadays in poultry is the use of antimicrobial drugs as feed additive. We all understand what the demerits are of using these antimicrobial feed additives but still we are not in a position to give up their usage voluntarily.

I believe that the use of antimicrobials can be avoided. We need to develop some specific dietary regimens, we have to ensure that bio-security measures are being followed (may be it is the most difficult part of poultry management in many part of the world including India) and we should emphasize on improving the gut health and integrity.

I don't want to differentiate the advancements we are achieving in specific time frames. The research and development in any field, including those in the field of poultry nutrition, is a dynamic process - an apparently not so important experiment conducted today may lead to some spectacular interpretation tomorrow. I am giving a simple example - use of probiotics like yeast is a very old practice. But we did not know the wonder the yeast cell walls can do - they can prevent gut pathogens, they can promote gut health and even they can improve the gut morphology. Additionally, the yeast cell walls can stimulate immunity and can confer disease resistance. Take another example of nutritional emulsifiers in poultry. I have come across an article on lecithin as an emulsifying agent in mammals published as early as in 1945 - the same lecithin is still being used, however, the molecular structure has been improved and the concept of emulsification is now extrapolated to other animals including poultry. What I intended to say is that the research is such a dynamic process that we should not differentiate a single one as the latest one.

We should focus on 2 key points - maximize FCR and minimize production time. However, while achieving these goals there is every possibility that we invite more problem - increased disease susceptibility due to immune compromisation and intense stress may be the most likely outcome. We have to take care of these points. In India I think that stress alleviation, particularly alleviation of heat stress should be our primary focus.  

I am basically a veterinarian having degree in veterinary science (B.V.Sc. and A. H.). I did master's in animal nutrition from the National Dairy Research Institute and PhD from the University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, India. My work in master's dissertation was on energy and protein metabolism in ruminants. In PhD my problem was associated with supplementation of chromium in ruminants - again in 'ruminants'. However, when I was searching literature on the effects of chromium I found the topic very interesting. I just casually conducted an experiment with heat stressed broilers which were supplemented with different chromium salts. I found fantastic improvement (the paper was published in Animal Science 2004). That was the beginning I started working with poultry. Subsequently I found poultry nutrition to be a really interesting subject and lot can be done in it - particularly in the additive sector. Incidentally, at this juncture I developed a connection with Dr David Creswell, Editor of the Asian Poultry and Asian Feed Magazines (published by the Asian Agribusiness Group). It was of course David who groomed me a lot - I learnt many things about poultry nutrition from David Creswell and I am indebted to him indeed.