Healthy animals mean safe and healthy food, so we’re committed to making sure the livestock and poultry we depend on are raised responsibly. Our philosophy is to use antibiotics only as needed and only when prescribed by a veterinarian, so we’ve been working since 2011 to reduce the use of any antibiotics used in human medicine from our chicken operations.
Chicken Hatcheries
Tyson Foods veterinarians, researchers and hatchery managers successfully developed and tested new protocols that will enable us to discontinue the use of antibiotics in our hatcheries. As of October 1, 2014, we no longer use antibiotics at our 35 Tyson Foods hatcheries. Since the antibiotic typically used in hatcheries is important to human health, this is a significant first step toward our goal of reducing the use of antibiotics that are also used in human medicine.
Chicken on Farms
On the farms where chickens are raised, we sometimes use FDA-approved antibiotics in the feed, but only when prescribed by a veterinarian to treat or prevent disease. The vast majority of the antibiotics used to raise our chickens are never used in humans and we continue to research alternative treatments and protocols that will eventually eliminate the application of any antibiotics used in human medicine from poultry feed.
Most livestock we buy for our beef and pork operations come from independent cattle and hog farmers. While we don’t control the veterinary care of these animals, we work with farmers and livestock industry groups to make sure antibiotics are used responsibly. In fact, many of the livestock producers that supply our company have a veterinarian on staff.
When antibiotics are used in our pork, beef or chicken supply chain, only FDA-approved antibiotics are used and FDA approved withdrawal periods are followed. The USDA regularly tests beef, pork and chicken products for antibiotic residues.
No Antibiotics Ever Option
For consumers who want meat from farm animals that have never been given antibiotics for any purpose, Tyson Foods offers a line of all natural chicken under the NatureRaised Farms® brand and choices in beef through our Open Prairie Natural Angus® brand. More information on these brands can be found at NatureRaisedFarms.com or OpenPrairieNaturalAngus.com.
Source: Tyson Foods
