Effect of natural growth promoters on performance of rabbits

For several decades, antibiotics and chemotherapeutics in prophylactic doses have been used in animal feed to improve animal welfare and to obtain economic benefits in terms of improved animal performance and reduced medication costs. However, there are increasing concerns about the risk of developing cross-resistance and multiple-antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria both in man and livestock, linked to the therapeutic and subtherapeutic uses of antibiotics in livestock and pets. The European Union has banned all of in-feed use of antibiotics from 2006 and the use of antibiotics in feed is being considered for elimination (or intense regulation) in other parts of the world. This perspective has stimulated nutritionists and feed manufacturers to search for new, safer alternatives.