"Betting on the Clean Food Industry": How FEFU Scientists Plan to Replace Antibiotics in Agriculture

The contamination of food products with antibiotics is an urgent problem not only in Russia, but around the world. Livestock farming relies on the substantial use of antibiotics, many of which have never been evaluated for human safety. This has led to grave concerns regarding the rise of antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans, which can result in increased mortality from bacterial infections. What solutions do scientists propose to address this issue? Is it possible to completely eliminate the use of antibiotics in the future? Let's take a look at the material below.

What is dangerous about antibiotic resistance?

Using antibiotics to prevent infectious diseases and promote growth in animal feed and aquaculture leads to the transmission of resistance determinants through food chains from animals to humans. Meanwhile, the increased antibiotic resistance in humans and animals leads to higher mortality rates from bacterial infections. In 2019, the number of people worldwide who died from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria exceeded 1,2 million. Livestock farming has also played a role in this. A ban on the prophylactic use of antibiotics in animal husbandry has already taken effect in the European Union and China. Their use is currently permitted in situations where there is a high risk of infection and only as prescribed by doctors as a treatment. In Russia, a law banning the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry entered into force on March 1, 2025. Probiotics are proposed as a replacement for antibiotics, but Russia's high dependence on imports (more than 70%) for the production of effective biologically active probiotic components for use as food and feed supplements exacerbates the situation. Additionally, Russia lacks a clear regulatory framework for the industrial production of probiotic biocomplexes. These facts all confirm the need to develop, produce, and use domestic probiotic biologics to restore and maintain natural microbiocenoses in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on a global scale.

Are new-generation probiotics a panacea or an effective solution?

In response to these issues, the FEFU Advanced Engineering School "Institute of Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Food Systems" is developing biologically active probiotics and next-generation synbiotics using seaweed polysaccharides in partnership with the Arnika R&D Center. These supplements will improve the quality of human and animal health as well as aquaculture. Probiotics are safe products containing beneficial bacteria that prevent intestinal infections and digestive problems. The need for antibiotics can be reduced by their use, which is important to combat AMR in both humans and animals. Currently, the most effective probiotics for humans and animals are produced abroad and imported into Russia.

The project's main idea is to use a combination of unique probiotic microorganisms and polysaccharides from Far Eastern marine bioresources to improve feed quality and the biosafety of livestock farming. Today, the FEFU Advanced Engineering School and Arnika's biotechnologists are creating a new generation of probiotics — customized probiotics — that take into account the microbiome of animals and humans. Probiotics should replace antibiotics as much as possible in livestock and poultry farming and in the artificial breeding of fish and seafood. This will significantly improve product safety and quality, as well as increase productivity. The new approach from FEFU scientists has several advantages:

• bioavailability in the macroorganism is higher;

• feed conversion has increased;

• the price is lower compared to world analogues;

• immune resistance is increased;

• the mortality rate of young animals is reduced.

FEFU scientists and biotechnologists of the Research and Production Group "Arnika" cooperate with large livestock complexes in the region and the country. The partners and stakeholders of the project are large agricultural companies (Rusagro, Primagro, Miratorg, Priaskolie, Ratmir, etc.), whose goal is to provide the population of the country with high quality and safe products, to reduce the economic and biological risks of agricultural production, and to enter (access) the markets of the Asia-Pacific region.

"Currently, effective probiotic feed additives in the form of multicomponent biological preparations and functional biological products, specially designed not only for a set of probiotic strains, but also with active prebiotic components to effectively influence certain target functions of various groups and species of animals, are mainly produced abroad and actively imported into the Russian market. The Research and Production Corporate Group "Arnika" plans to start mass-producing new-generation probiotic and synbiotic biocomplexes for animal feed in the created high-tech facility - the Biofactory "Pharmasyntez" in the PDA "Nadezhdinskaya". Now, in cooperation with livestock complexes, we are actively working not only on production technology, but also on confirming the effectiveness of new biocomplexes, and together with the Technical Committee of Rosstandart we are developing the necessary regulatory framework - a new Russian government standard (GOST) for the opportunity of industrial production of probiotic biocomplexes in Russia, the introduction of which is planned by 2026, " said Lyudmila Tekutyeva, Director of RPCG Arnika, Director of FEFU Advanced Engineering School.

The developed innovative probiotic biocomplexes have the potential to significantly boost the competitiveness and profitability of domestic livestock and aquaculture not only in the Russian market, but also in the markets of APR countries. By 2034, it is planned to sell at least 10 billion rubles worth of probiotic products produced under the new GOST, which will make a significant contribution to the development of the Russian economy and food security. The biocomplexes created for animal health will be ready for industrial implementation by 2026, and those for aquaculture by 2027, which will ensure high product quality. The team of biotechnologists from the Advanced Engineering School, together with scientists of the Medical School and doctors of the FEFU Medical Complex, is engaged in the development, creation of production technology and research of probiotic biocomplexes for therapeutic, specialized and functional human nutrition, which is an important step in the sustainable development of human capital and the economy of the country, aimed at achieving technological sovereignty and leadership.

It should be noted that this project is implemented together with partners within the framework of scientific projects of the Advanced Engineering School "Institute of Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Food Systems" of FEFU. Since 2025, the project has received financial support for its continuation from the Priority 2030 Program of Strategic Academic Leadership. The project is in line with the objectives of three new national technology leadership projects (NTLP):

– NTPL "New Materials and Chemistry" (Federal project "Import substitution of critical biotechnological products");

- NTPL "New Technologies of Health Preservation" (Federal project "Industry for health care");

- NTPL "New Technologies for Preservation of Health" NTPL "Technological Support of the Bio-economy" of the Russian Federation (Federal projects "Organization of production and promotion of sales of products of bio-economy" and "Scientific and technological support for development of bio-economy").