Dhaka, Nov. 24 -- Most poultry farmers who grow broiler chickens give unnecessary "preventive" antibiotics to healthy chickens. The farmers are advised to use these drugs by dealers. Dealers are middlemen who have no understanding of diseases or treatment. Dealers advise farmers to use these antibiotics because they want to sell antibiotics.

Experts say that unnecessary use of antibiotics on a broiler chicken farm can make all bacteria present on the farm resistant to antibiotics. Many of these bacteria, like salmonella and e-coli, can infect humans. As these bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, it will become difficult to treat human patients suffering from these infections.

On the other hand, farmers who grow chickens under...