Drugs for bigger chooks

Imugene has completed a large-scale product development trial of its novel, non-antibiotic, non-hormone Poultry Productivity Enhancer.

The double blinded 900-bird trial of the Poultry Productivity Enhancer compared eight different combinations of dose and frequency of administration to determine the optimum dose and administration schedule for the final commercial product.

Half the groups were fed feed containing antibiotics while the others were fed antibiotic-free feed. Antibiotics are routinely included in poultry feed as a disease preventative and to improve growth.

The four best performing groups of birds given the Poultry Productivity Enhancer and in-feed antibiotics showed weight gains between 9.5% and 13.75% compared with in-feed antibiotics alone. The improvement in weight gains ranged from 219 to 317 g per bird. All treated birds exceeded the current industry best practice 'Ross Standard' finishing weight of 2272 g.

Birds on 'antibiotic-free' feed given only the Poultry Productivity Enhancer showed weight gain improvements of 7.2% to 13.2% when compared with birds given in-feed antibiotics.

These results confirm that Imugene's Poultry Productivity Enhancer produces improvement in weight gain regardless of the presence or absence of in-feed antibiotics. The Poultry Productivity Enhancer will, subject to regulatory approvals, therefore be sold across global poultry markets for use both with in-feed antibiotics and following their withdrawal.