Antibiotics were (and are) used in poultry production to make chickens grow faster.

Original statement

كبر لك الفراخ بالمضادات الحيويه فهو عارف يكبر فرخه من 10 جرام كتكوت خلاها فرخه 3 كيلو في 40 يوم

verbatim according to source. Translation by the project; the Arabic wording is authoritative.

Translation

Antibiotics were (and are) used in poultry production to make chickens grow faster.

Origin

Source status

Video transcript (own words)

Attribution

Elawady (machine transcript)

Video

Dr Diaa Al Awady د ضياء العوضي is live!لايف بصراحة (Open source)

Published

27 January 2026

Timestamp

0:59:35 (location in the original video’s automatic YouTube caption track; confirms where the words occur, not who speaks)

Attribution uncertainty

Archive transcript (YouTube CC or AI-generated); wording may contain transcription errors; no timestamps; 'published' is the date listed by the archive. Passage read in context.

Claimed mechanism

Microbiome-mediated growth promotion.

Claimed health effect

Faster growth of chickens.

Geographic restriction by Elawady

none found

Diverging source versions

Scientific assessment

Mostly true – Correct at its core, but with limitations or minor inaccuracies.

Certainty of evidence: moderate – Further research may still affect the assessment.

1. What was claimed?

Antibiotics make chickens grow.

2. What is demonstrably correct?

Antibiotics were authorised as feed additives in the EU until 31 December 2005 and then banned (I-RES-04). Cox et al. describe the growth-promoting effect of low-dose antibiotics and reproduce it in mice (A-ABX-03).

3. What is wrong or exaggerated?

The implication that today's broiler growth is due to antibiotics is not supported for the EU, where growth promoters are banned. The fast growth of modern broilers is mainly the result of genetic selection: in a comparison of strains from 1957, 1978 and 2005 raised on the same modern feed, broiler growth increased by over 400% and feed conversion ratio fell by 50% (I-INTA-11). The figures in the video ('a 10-gram chick to a 3-kilogram bird in 40 days') were not checked against a source; the cited abstract does not report hatch weight.

4. What remains unclear?

Current growth-promoter use in Egypt.

5. Which studies support it?

I-RES-04, A-ABX-03.

6. Which studies contradict it?

I-INTA-11 (growth gains from genetic selection without antibiotics in the comparison).

7. What applies to Germany and Europe?

Banned since 2006.

8. What is known about Egypt?

Not verified.

9. What practical conclusion is appropriate?

Historically correct; not a description of current EU practice.

Assessment details

Rationale for certainty of evidence

Growth promotion with sub-therapeutic antibiotics is historically well established (it is why the EU banned the practice in 2006) and is the basis of the mouse model in A-ABX-03. However, the fast growth of modern broilers (about 40 days to slaughter weight) is mainly due to genetics and feed, not antibiotics (general animal science; no source fetched), and EU broilers have been raised without antibiotic growth promoters since 2006.

Source quality

Machine transcript.

Regional transferability

EU: banned since 2006; elsewhere practice varies.

Regional scope of the claim

not specified

Last reviewed

25 October 2026 provisional

In plain language

Dr Elawady says chickens were made to grow faster with antibiotics. This is historically correct: low doses of antibiotics were used for this purpose, which is why the EU banned the practice from 2006. Today, the fast growth of chickens mainly comes from breeding and feed.

Studies on this claim

Regional context

Germany / EU

Banned since 2006.

Egypt

Not verified.

• Food-safety governance and official controls
• Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables on the EU/German market (incl. imports from Egypt)
• Pesticide residues in produce sold on the Egyptian domestic market
• Antibiotic (veterinary drug) residues in poultry meat and eggs
• Antimicrobial use in food animals and antibiotic growth promoters
• Hormones in poultry, meat, milk and farmed fish
• Salmonella in laying hens, eggs and broiler chicken
• Dioxins, PCBs and PFAS in eggs and other animal foods
• Aflatoxin M1 in milk and dairy products
• Aflatoxins in groundnuts (peanuts)
• Heavy metals in fish
• Farmed fish (aquaculture): drugs, water source and controls
• Import controls and the meaning of RASFF notifications for Egyptian products

What applies in my country?

General scientific assessment

Mostly true Historically correct; banned in the EU since 2006.

The following areas of food safety are relevant to this statement:

• Pesticides and pesticide residues
• Veterinary medicines and antibiotics
• Hormonal growth promoters
• Contaminants (heavy metals, PFAS, PCBs, dioxins, nitrate)
• Pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc.)
• Animal husbandry and feed
• Controls, imports, recalls, labelling

Eggs · Poultry · Dairy · Fish and seafood · Red meat · Fruit and vegetables

Limits: legal rules describe what is allowed, not what every single food contains. Measurement data come from samples and are meaningful only together with their method details.

Country of residence or purchase Compare with another country

References

1. Regulation (EC) No 1831/2003 on additives for use in animal nutrition, Article 11. European Parliament and Council. Official Journal of the EU 2003
2. Altering the intestinal microbiota during a critical developmental window has lasting metabolic consequences.. Cox LM et al.. Cell 2014 · PMID 25126780 · DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.052
3. Growth, efficiency, and yield of commercial broilers from 1957, 1978, and 2005.. Zuidhof MJ et al.. Poultry science 2014 · PMID 25260522 · DOI 10.3382/ps.2014-04291