According to the announcement No. 194 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, from July 1, 2020, feed production enterprises will stop producing commercial feeds containing growth-promoting drug feed additives (excluding traditional Chinese medicine).

-Background of the implementation of feed antibiotic prohibition
At present, about 90% of the antibiotics in the world are used on food animals, which will not only affect human health, but also cultivate super bacteria. While acting as a bacterial hunter, antibiotics have also become a super coach of bacteria. According to the prediction of the World Health Organization, by 2030, drug-resistant bacteria will probably cause nearly 24 million people to suffer extreme pain; By 2050, the super bacteria "trained" by antibiotics will probably cause about 10 million people to die of bacterial infection every year.

In 1986, Sweden announced for the first time a comprehensive ban on the use of antibiotics in feed additives. Since 2006, the European Union has completely banned the use of antibiotics in feed. Since 2008, Japan has banned the use of antibiotics in feed. In 2011, the Korean government banned the addition of antibiotics in animal feed; The United States Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a guidance document to prohibit the use of preventive antibiotics in livestock feed for three years from 2014. With the rise of the international "green trade barrier", China's meat export has encountered more and more restrictions and obstacles, which pose a serious challenge to China's aquaculture industry. China also implemented the feed prohibition on July 1, 2020.
-The impact of the implementation of feed resistance prohibition
Although this policy is good, the addition of antibiotics to pig feed is completely prohibited, which will lead to major changes in the pig market. Can we afford pork in the future?
The purpose of adding antibiotics to pig feed is not only to passively improve the resistance of pigs, but also to fatten them. So it takes only 6 to 7 months for pigs to reach 95 to 110 kg. Compared with the time it takes farmers to raise pigs for one year, the efficiency of pig production has been greatly improved. In the face of absolute benefits, only more and more antibiotics will be added to the feed, and now the overall "anti resistance" is now comprehensive, Naturally, it will prolong the period of pig production, which will affect the market.
At present, the price of pork remains high because of its huge market gap. From 16 to 19 years, the price of pork has increased from about 15 yuan per kilogram to about 35 yuan per kilogram. The market pork gap is between 10 and 12 million tons, which needs about 100 million pigs to fill. Now, after the extension of the pig market cycle, the desire of farmers to supplement the pig market will be negatively affected, and the market supply cycle of pork will be extended, which will lead to further increase of the market gap, and the price of pork is likely to rise.
Relevant departments should actively develop a new pig feed supply system, develop a new type of cheap pig feed, and give corresponding breeding subsidies to farmers before the balance of supply and demand in the pork market, so as to continue to promote the recovery of pig stock, so as to stabilize the pork market price.
After the addition of antibiotics in feed is prohibited, the "additional" resistance previously imposed on pigs will also disappear, and the probability of disease occurrence will also increase to a certain extent during the whole growth process of pigs. In this case, the veterinary medicine industry is likely to rise. In fact, the rise of this industry can promote the overall level of disease prevention and disease resistance in the aquaculture industry in the long run, but once the industry has an "explosive" demand growth in a short period of time, its related drug and treatment costs will also rise significantly, which undoubtedly increases the breeding costs of farmers. Although this is only a probability event, we should also pay attention to its market control, To prevent people from hyping up the price of veterinary drugs.

　-Introduction of feed antibiotic substitutes
In this context, the rational and standardized use of antibiotic substitutes is crucial for safe, green and efficient pig production.
1) Chinese herbal extracts and preparations
Practice has proved that Chinese herbal extracts and preparations as feed additives have the advantages of promoting appetite, enhancing resistance, preventing and treating diseases. Among many alternatives to antibiotics for pig breeding, Chinese herbal medicine is the most widely used, with a prevalence rate of 81% in pig farms. Common Chinese herbal medicines include Ligustrum lucidum, Astragalus, Codonopsis pilosula, Houttuynia, Leonurus heterophyllus, Isatis indigotica, etc., which can improve the immunity of pigs or have antibacterial effects. The use cost of Chinese herbal medicine is relatively low, but most Chinese herbal medicine acts slowly and requires a large dose. Moreover, some Chinese herbal medicine is similar to antibiotics, which can kill beneficial bacteria and pathogenic bacteria in the body. In addition, palatability and price are the main problems to be solved in the application of Chinese herbal medicine in feed.
2) Plant extract
Plant extracts are bioactive substances extracted from plants, and the effective components in plants are extracted by appropriate solvents and methods. Plant extracts have many advantages, including small toxic and side effects, safe and harmless, no drug resistance, no residue and low price, so as to avoid drug resistance and other problems in production. The extraction of plant essential oil can use organic solvent or steam distillation. It is estimated that there are 3000 kinds of essential oils known at present, but only cinnamaldehyde, carvol, eugenol and thymol are the most concerned in pig production.
3) Acidifier
Because lactobacillus and other beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of livestock and poultry are suitable for breeding in an acidic environment, while the suitable pH for the growth of pathogenic bacteria is mostly neutral or alkaline, acidifiers can inhibit the reproduction of harmful microorganisms by reducing the pH value of the gastrointestinal tract, and promote the proliferation of beneficial bacteria. Research shows that small molecular organic acids such as formic acid and acetic acid have strong effects on regulating gastrointestinal pH, but have limited effects on improving animal growth performance; Macromolecular organic acids such as lactic acid and citric acid can promote animal appetite, daily weight gain and feed conversion rate. However, the problems caused by the use of organic acids in production must be considered, such as the corrosion of equipment, material tanks, etc., and most of the organic acid additives currently used are costly.
4) Microecological preparation
Micro-ecological preparation is a live bacterial preparation for animals, which is made of known beneficial microorganisms through special processes such as culture, extraction and drying. Micro-ecological preparations help to support the growth of probiotics in the body, resist the propagation of pathogenic bacteria, promote the digestion and absorption of feed, provide nutrition, enhance the immune function of animals, and improve the internal and external ecological environment. There are three main types of bacteria used in micro-ecological preparations, including lactic acid bacteria, spores and fungi. Among them, lactic acid bacteria are considered by many scholars to be the most promising substitute for feed antibiotics. However, at present, users in China are generally lack of confidence in micro-ecological preparations. The main reason is that there are too many low-quality and low-efficiency products in the past few years. At present, most of the products in circulation on the market also have the disadvantages of heat resistance, easy inactivation and low biological activity, and most of the lactic acid bacteria have the characteristics of poor resistance to adverse environment. Therefore, the development of high-stability lactic acid bacteria preparations is the inevitable development direction of micro-ecological preparations.
5) Antimicrobial peptides
Antibacterial peptide is a kind of polypeptide with antibacterial activity, which exists in almost all organisms. It is an important component of the body's defense system, an effector molecule of innate immunity, and has direct antibacterial effect. The treatment range of antimicrobial peptides is: gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, fungi, parasites, tumor cells, etc. There are more than 700 known antimicrobial peptides, and biological screening technology and cloning technology have been used to identify whether antimicrobial peptides have the potential to replace antibiotics. Once confirmed to have antibacterial activity, the vast majority of antimicrobial peptides can be synthesized by chemical methods, but the high cost of the synthesis process will prevent the antimicrobial peptides produced by this method from being used as feed additives. The antimicrobial spectrum of antimicrobial peptides is generally narrow and can be used to deal with specific pathogenic bacteria.
6) Oligosaccharide
Oligosaccharides, also known as oligosaccharides and oligosaccharides, usually refer to monosaccharide polymers with a degree of polymerization of 2-10 and a straight or branched chain formed by the connection of sugar units through glycosidic bonds. Generally, it has good physical and chemical properties such as low heat, stability, safety and non-toxicity. At present, the commonly used oligosaccharides in feed include fructose oligosaccharide and mannan oligosaccharide. Oligosaccharides can promote the growth and reproduction of beneficial bacteria in the intestines of the body, directly absorb pathogenic bacteria, enhance the immunity of the body, and improve the health of animals. However, at present, the use of oligosaccharides is affected to varying degrees by the mechanism of oligosaccharides, the antagonism and coordination with other nutrients and natural oligosaccharides, the effect of different combinations of oligosaccharides on feeding effects, the effect of animal species, age, physiological status on oligosaccharides and the control of costs.
7) Clay mineral
Clay minerals are composed of tetrahedral and octahedral layer network structure, containing silicon, aluminum and oxygen molecules. The naturally occurring clay (bentonite, zeolite and kaolin) is a mixture of different clays with different chemical compositions. The most familiar are montmorillonite, smectite, illite, kaolinite and clinoptilolite. Adding clay to the diet can bind and fix toxic substances in the intestines of animals, thus reducing their bioavailability and toxicity. Clay minerals can combine with aflatoxin, plant metabolites, heavy metals and other toxins. The adsorption degree of harmful substances depends on the chemical characteristics of clay minerals, the number of exchangeable ions, surface characteristics and the fine structure of clay particles.
-Summary
There is still a long way to go from feed end antibiotic prohibition to non-antibiotic breeding. Feed end antibiotic prohibition is only the beginning of non-antibiotic breeding. In the future, the aquaculture industry will gradually limit the use of antibiotics until it is truly "non-antibiotic". Non-resistant breeding needs cooperation from all links in the industrial chain. We need to actively explore our own, reasonable and scientific way of non-resistance.
reference material:
China Feed Industry Information Network - Big Event! The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued Announcement No. 194, which said that the prohibition of feed resistance was a foregone conclusion, and the industry ushered in a new era of great changes!
Baijia - Reference Guide for Analysis and Use of Feed Antibiotic Substitutes