In many large commercial chicken farms, the animals are fed antibiotics to keep them healthy and fight off infections. But due to consumer demand, McDonald’s has eliminated antibiotics used in human medicine from its entire restaurant chicken supply.

Meanwhile, a farm in Pennsylvania owned by Scott Sechler is among the first to rely solely on a mix of oregano oil and cinnamon in the treatment and care of its chickens. In addition to being completely natural, oregano oil supplies the chickens with health advantages, producing a much higher quality of natural chicken in a far more humane method than that attained using antibiotics. Like antibiotics, the oil assists the chickens in battling any infections, reducing the number of birds lost to disease.

Bob Ruth, president of another Pennsylvania farming business, has been testing oregano on his pigs for six months to see if it can outperform prescription antibiotics. Related problems arise when animals live in dirty conditions, making them more susceptible to infections and viruses, which can also be triggered by insufficient cleansing of slaughterhouses that must be hosed down and completely sanitized after each act of butchery. He thinks that drugs should not be a requirement if the farmers keep things tidy.

This article appears in the March 2017 issue of Natural Awakenings.