by the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis

A good biosecurity tip: Restrict visitor access to where your birds are housed and don’t allow people who own other birds to come in contact with your birds.

ZAPYLAIEV KOSTIANTYN/SHUTTERSTOCK

Chickens get sick, just like people. When we get sick and the cause is bacterial, our physician can prescribe antibiotics to kill the bad bacteria. This decision is based on what’s in the patient’s best interest. Chickens are more complicated because they are raised to produce food — eggs and meat — and the decision-maker needs to consider how the antibiotic would affect the safety of that food. This article aims to help you understand and appreciate proper antibiotic use for your backyard poultry.

Antibiotic Resistance

The main concern with antibiotic resistance involves using the same antibiotics in humans and chickens. The concern is that bacteria that are resistant to an antibiotic used in humans will move from the food chain to people, making future treatment in humans challenging.

It’s like when you’re trying to use a sharp knife to cut a tomato, which gives you nice, evenly carved pieces. In contrast, when you use a dull knife, you essentially combine sawing and crushing through the tomato, which gives you a messy puddle of damaged tomato flesh and seeds. In this example, the tomato is the bacteria while the knife is the antibiotic. The more often the antibiotic is used incorrectly, the more likely it won’t be effective against the bacteria.