Antibiotics were used as growth promoters in poultry, pig and ruminant livestock production for more than 40 years before their ban by the European Commission at the beginning of 2006. The ban followed one well documented instance in which a transmissible antibiotic resistance factor that originated in livestock receiving a relatively new growth-promoting antibiotic (GPA) found its way into a human pathogen. Thus, human infection caused by this pathogen would no longer be treatable by vancomycin, one of the most potent antibiotics remaining in the clinician’s armoury. While there is no suggestion that other GPA could compromise human health in this way, the Commission responded to strong consumer pressure and banned all GPA, thus lessening the environmental load of widespread antibiotic use as well as eliminating specific health risks. Other nations, including those in North America, took a more pragmatic view, however, banning only those GPA where risk was identified. As a consequence, EU livestock producers could be considered to be at a competitive disadvantage compared with those other nations. 

Improved management practices can compensate at least partially for the absence of GPA. The Scandinavian countries, which banned GPA many years before the EU-wide ban was imposed, have pioneered the management approach. Alternative feed additives might provide a suitable alternative in less readily managed livestock systems. Among the most promising category of replacements is plant extracts. Several projects led by scientists at RINH have explored the potential of the plant kingdom as ‘feed additives’ rather than simply for their nutrient content.