Tyson Foods Inc. has announced that, as of October 1, it no longer uses antibiotics in its 35 chicken hatcheries. Perdue Foods announced in September that the company was limiting use of antibiotics in poultry production.
“Tyson Foods veterinarians, researchers, and hatchery managers successfully developed and tested new protocols that will enable us to discontinue the use of antibiotics in our hatcheries,” the company stated. “As of October 1, 2014, we no longer use antibiotics at our 35 Tyson Foods hatcheries. Since the antibiotic typically used in hatcheries is important to human health, this is a significant first step toward our goal of reducing the use of antibiotics that are also used in human medicine.”
Tyson offers a completely antibiotic-free chicken under its NatureRaised Farms brand and Open Prairie Natural Angus brand.
