Paracetic acid trials show pathogen benefits in broilers

Efforts to reduce antibiotics use on poultry units could be bolstered by an in-water paracetic acid product that controls major pathogens, an animal health company claims.

Trial data from 250,000 broilers across the north of England have shown the paracetic acid product Peranan can aid in the control of salmonella avian influenza, according to Aga2Tech.

See also: 6 things poultry producers can do to cut antibiotics further

The company says a 2% dilution of the acid treatment delivered through in-water drink lines cleared up salmonella when used in trials on two farms.

Aga2Tech says the acid works by disrupting virus particles through a highly oxidative system, generating a rapid energy transfer.

Performance

Adrian Fellows, chief executive officer of Aga2Tech, said performance of the birds given the paracetic acid, when assessed on metrics like body weight, feed conversion ratio and margin over feed cost, was equivalent or better than those in control sheds.

“Our next steps will involve more lab testing to assess the range of pathogens that Peranan proves effective against, and further commercial farm trials will be carried out to see if we can shorten the length of treatment required to achieve the same efficacy,” said Adrian.

“When tested at an independent, UK Accreditation Service-certified lab, we found in-water Peranan was proven to kill the bird flu virus, while being completely safe for poultry consumption.”

Industry-wide antibiotics use

The claims follow further good news on the poultry sector’s antibiotics use reduction, which, according to Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (Ruma) reports, has fallen annually since 2020 from 16.3mg/kg to 13.54mg/kg in 2023.

Antibiotics treatments of “last resort” (fluoroquinolones, macrolides and polymyxins) have fallen in use 98.9% since 2012.