Do Egg Farmers Use Antibiotics?
Antibiotic Residue
When antibiotics are used as directed by the FDA, it’s highly unlikely that there will be antibiotic residue in eggs. The government tests animal-based agricultural products to make sure that any medicines used on the farm don’t pose a risk to human health, and over the past several years, there have been zero antibiotics used to treat disease in U.S. laying hens found in all the tests performed on eggs.12,13
- Learn more about antibiotic residue
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Antibiotics can be very effective for treating, controlling, and preventing bacterial diseases and there are strict government regulations around the use of antibiotics to make sure that the food we eat is safe. The most commonly used antibiotic in the egg industry is gentamicin, which hatcheries may administer to day-old chicks to prevent or treat yolk sac infections. The vast majority of these newly hatched chicks will never receive another antibiotic in the course of their lives.12