REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. One Health
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1605215
Alternatives to antibiotics for sustainable livestock production in the context of the One-Health-Approach: Tackling a common foe
Provisionally accepted
- 1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Ottawa, Canada
- 2Laval University, Quebec, Quebec, Canada
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The discovery of the growth promoting effects of antibiotics in the 1940’s contributed to the economic efficacy of the livestock industry. In response to increased animal protein demand from the 1950s, antimicrobial use at sub-therapeutic levels for growth promotion and disease prevention (antimicrobial growth promoter, AGP) improved feed-to-weight ratio, meat quality and overall health of livestock. These benefits encouraged the heavy use of AGPs such that about 70% of global use of antimicrobials was for food animals. Despite the numerous benefits of AGPs, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) associated to their use and impact on human and livestock health, establishes AMR as a global health plague, affecting man, animal and the environment. Although many countries have banned the use of AGPs in livestock production, efforts to identify effective alternatives have yielded inconsistent findings and only few effective alternative products are currently available. This highlights the need to intensify efforts toward identifying more effective AGP alternatives. While current strategies focus on evaluating the efficacy of single products/class of products that can enhance productivity and health, future strategies should focus on combining multiple approaches. It is also important to acknowledge that no single alternative can fully replicate the same mechanism of action attributed to antimicrobials. This comprehensive review presents recent research findings on AGP use trend before and after bans in many countries, the benefit/mode of action of reported AGP alternatives, the economic impact of AGP alternatives in the context of the One-Health-Approach, the factors militating the search for effective AGP alternatives, research gaps and future action plans for AGP-free animal farm management
Keywords: Antibiotic growth promoter (AGP), antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrobial alternative, AGP-free livestock production, One-Health-Approach
Received: 03 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ibeagha-Awemu, Omonijo, Piché and Vincent. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Eveline M Ibeagha-Awemu, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Ottawa, Canada
Antony T Vincent, Laval University, Quebec, G1V 0A6, Quebec, Canada
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.