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Antibiotic-free turkey production Thanks to Algae

Olmix Group shared the latest updates on its programme to raise antibiotic-free turkey at the Turkey Science Production Conference.

17-04-2018

After discussing the use and the benefits of seaweeds in poultry health and nutrition at the first ‘Olmix Conference on Seaweed in Poultry Production’ in Cheshire (United Kingdom), Olmix Group went the extra mile and continued sharing its knowledge and expertise on the matter by sponsoring the Turkey Science Production Conference, which took place last month at Carden Park Hotel, also in this county of the British country.

Moreover, the scientific congress was an excellent opportunity for the Olmix Animal Care team -represented by Mr Olivier Biannic, Olmix’s Antibiotic-free Production Manager-, to present the latest updates on the SAGA (‘Sans Antibiotique Grâce aux Algues’, which means ‘Without Antibiotics Thanks to Algae’ in English) project through the lecture ‘Antibiotic-free Turkey Production Using Algae’.

Mr Olivier Biannic at the Turkey Science Conference.

Mr Olivier Biannic at the Turkey Science Conference.

The SAGA Project

The project started in 2017 by testing antibiotic free production on 4 Turkey flocks. It ended up by the first positive result of antibiotic free production thanks to Algae. Then, the Olmix Animal Care team worked with ‘La Trinitaise’ -a French high quality meat processor- to develop a protocol to raise turkey without antibiotics and commercialize them as so called “raised without the use of antibiotic since hatching”.

This protocol is based on strengthening and boosting immunity thanks to algae extracts validated by two recent INRA publications and used in Searup in the water and Algimun in the feed. Moreover, the programme takes some other factors into consideration: mycotoxin risk control (with MT.X+, Olmix’s mycotoxin binder) environmental hygiene (with the animal environment sanitizers Mistral and MBroiler), digestive well-being (with Sealyt, Olmix’s digestive regulator) and last, but not least, digestive efficiency (with the Olmix’s enzyme booster MFeed+ to be used in the feed and with DigestSea, through the water.

Since September 2017, more than 100,000 birds have been labelled and commercialized as antibiotic- free, which represents 90% of the birds placed under an antibiotic-free protocol by the Olmix Animal Care division. Performances and results are complying with the average of the region on turkey raised in buildings sized between 800 and 1200m² and with a density around 7,2 animals/m².

Antibiotic-free turkey production: results.

Focus on first results

Until today, 20 batches (or 140,000 turkeys) have been placed in Britany (France).

Generally speaking, meat processors are proud to upmarket and label their meat as ’Raised without antibiotic since hatching‘.

For ‘La Trinitaise’, specialized in turkey meat cutting, the amount of turkeys raised without antibiotics still represents a slight volume of their production but it bets on a production of 20% of its global volume in few months. Today, this kind of meat is sold at a price 25% higher than the conventional one and already delivered by major French catering groups.