Israel’s Of Tov sees success with antibiotic-free broilers: The country’s third-largest broiler producer has strengthened its market position by adopting antibiotic-free production across its poultry farms.

Israel’s third-largest poultry producer, Of Tov, is raising almost 99% of its broiler flocks without antibiotics or coccidiostats, and has accrued several benefits from making the change.

While not without its difficulties, switching to antibiotic-free production has seen improved flock health and productivity, and a stronger commercial performance, allowing it to claim to be Israel’s largest antibiotic-free poultry meat company.

The transition to rearing birds without antibiotics was driven by concerns at the very top of the company over the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans and animals, said company veterinarian Gilad Ayali, continuing that the change is now paying dividends, with feed conversion rates improving by more than 4%, and product resonating with consumers, and demand growing particularly strongly for Of Tov’s higher-value products.

Route to success

Located in Israel’s Jordan Valley, Of Tov produces 25 million broilers annually. Becoming the country’s leading producer of poultry meat from birds reared without antibiotics was not straightforward, however, necessitating a reappraisal of activities at various levels.

Initially, the company tested the use of various feed additives as alternatives to antibiotics on 40% of its best-performing farms.

When those test farms achieved performance equal to farms still using antibiotics, the company removed antibiotics and coccidiostats across its production sites.

However, the initial trial farms’ success could not be replicated across production sites, and a significant drop in flock performance...