When they get sick, chickens are treated with antibiotics, in the same way as our children or puppies are treated. However, the use of antibiotics in poultry farming in western countries including Italy is very restrictively regulated. Action is only taken if strictly necessary, that is, only if the chickens become seriously ill. The antibiotic is not available to the farmer but only to the veterinarian who takes responsibility for the treatment and its supervision. All antibiotic treatments are registered by the health authorities. Farms with antibiotic consumption exceeding the media are subject to inspection. Once cured, it is compulsory for poultry farmers to respect the so-called ‘withdrawal time’, i.e. the number of days it takes for the animals to dispose of the drug before being released for consumption. Furthermore, the use of antibiotics is done according to a much more refined and targeted procedure than for human antibiotics, because for chickens, by means of an ‘antibiogram’, the specific antibiotic is chosen for the type of bacteria that have occurred and only in the necessary dose. Antibiotics used for humans, on the other hand, are in equal doses for all, broad-spectrum and without the certainty that the spectrum includes that particular bacterium active at that time.
