REDUCTION OF ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE AS INDUCED BY FLAVOMYCIN®

Abstract The demand for pork and poultry products is strongly influenced by the consumers con-cern for healthy and safe food. The topic of food safety mainly concentrates on Salmonella con-tamination and is recently joined by the topic of antimicrobial resistance due to the use of antimi-crobial growth promoters (AGP) in animal feed. Recent research findings on Flavomycin (flavophospholipol), registered as an AGP for pigs, poultry and cattle, describe a reducing effect on the development of antibiotic resistance and on the frequency of plasmid transfer. Flavophospholipol does not induce an antibiotic resistance to antibiotics used for veterinary or human therapy as it is not related to any antibiotic used for these purposes. Furthermore, it is capable of reducing antibiotic resistance to other antibiotics. This effect seems to be yielded by interfering in the biosynthesis of the plasmid bridge (pylus) which is a prerequisite for the genetic transfer from one bacteria to another. Introduction The demand for pork and poultry products is strongly influenced by the consumers concern for healthy and safe food. The topic of food safety mainly concentrates on Salmonella contamination and is recently joined by the topic of antimicrobial resistance due to the use of antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP) in animal feed. Latest findings on flavophospholipol, regis