Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale said Tuesday that it is working to eliminate the use of human antibiotics from U.S. broiler chicken flocks by September 2017.
The publicly traded meat processor (NYSE: TSN) announced the plan in a news release. The company said it has already stopped using all antibiotics in its 35 broiler hatcheries, requires a veterinary prescription for antibiotics used on broiler farms and has reduced human antibiotics used to treat broiler chickens by more than 80 percent since 2011.
“Antibiotic resistant infections are a global health concern,” Donnie Smith, president and CEO of Tyson Foods, said. “We’re confident our meat and poultry products are safe, but want to do our part to responsibly reduce human antibiotics on the farm so these medicines can continue working when they’re needed to treat illness.”
Tyson’s announcement follows similar pledges by chicken producers such as Pilgrim’s Pride to reduce or eliminate use of human antibiotics, which have been used to promote growth in chicken flocks. McDonald’s, for which Tyson is a major supplier of chicken, announced in March that within two years it would not serve chicken products that had been given human antibiotics.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has called for the elimination of human antibiotics in food products because the more antibiotics are used, the more drug-resistant bacteria can become. The fear is use of antibiotics in chicken would make them less effective to treat people with bacteria infections.
Tyson said it will form “working groups” to discover ways to reduce antibiotic use in the beef, pork and turkey industries and those groups will begin meeting this summer. The company also announced it was working with private and public entities to promote research for alternatives to human antibiotics in farm animals.
The company said its international business “is committed to taking similar measures” but hasn’t set a timeframe.
In the announcement, Smith said Tyson would still use antibiotics under veterinary supervision because the company wouldn’t “jeopardize animal well-being” to reach the no-antibiotic goal.
“One of our core values is to serve as responsible stewards of animals — we will not let sick animals suffer,” Smith said. “We believe it’s our responsibility to help drive action towards sustainable solutions to this challenge by working with our chicken, turkey, beef and pork supply chains.”
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