New Anthoney’s takes on antimicrobial resistance to make Sri Lankan poultry safer

Sri Lanka consumes roughly 258,000 metric tonnes of chicken annually, according to the Department of Animal Production and Health, and that figure has been climbing steadily as protein awareness grows and fast food culture deepens. Behind that volume lies a practice that most consumers never see: the routine use of antibiotics in commercial poultry farming, applied not to treat disease but to accelerate growth and compensate for poor biosecurity. New Anthoney’s Farms, one of Sri Lanka’s few antibiotic-free poultry producers, has spent years building a credible counter-argument to that norm, and the science increasingly backs its position.

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is the process by which bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve to defeat the drugs designed to treat them. The World Health Organization has described AMR as one of the greatest threats to global public health, attributing 1.27 million deaths directly to resistant bacterial infections in 2019 alone, with the broader toll estimated at 4.95 million deaths when infections to which AMR contributed are included. The WHO now projects that without coordinated action, AMR could cause up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, surpassing cancer as a leading cause of mortality.

The livestock sector is a significant driver. Antibiotics administered to animals pass through the food chain and into the environment, accelerating resistance in bacteria that affect both animals and humans. In the poultry industry specifically, the pattern is well established: farms under pressure to produce faster and at lower cost turn to antibiotics as a management crutch rather than a last resort.

What the data shows in Sri Lanka

Local research confirms the scale of the problem. A study published in the Sri Lanka Veterinary Journal examining commercial poultry farms in the Kurunegala district found that 98 percent of farms surveyed were using at least one antimicrobial drug, with enrofloxacin, amoxicillin and tetracycline among the most common. Resistance profiles from faecal samples showed tetracycline resistance at 81.8 percent and resistance to fluoroquinolones including ciprofloxacin at 31.8 percent. These are not obscure compounds: ciprofloxacin is a critically important antibiotic in human medicine, classified by the WHO as essential for treating severe infections where few alternatives exist.

The implications are direct. When resistance builds up in poultry gut bacteria and those bacteria enter the food chain, soil, or water supply, they carry their resistance traits with them. Consumers who never take an antibiotic themselves can still be exposed to resistant organisms through the food they eat.

New Anthoney’s position in the market

New Anthoney’s established its antibiotic-free model not as a marketing angle but as a production philosophy tied to long-term commercial viability and public health responsibility. The company’s Harithahari range of chicken is certified antibiotic-free, produced under strict biosecurity protocols that eliminate the conditions that prompt conventional farmers to reach for antimicrobials in the first place. Harithahari, which means ‘green’ in Sinhala, is positioned as a premium product for health-conscious consumers who understand what antibiotic-free means and why it matters.

The company’s approach received formal academic recognition through a memorandum of understanding with the University of Peradeniya, one of Sri Lanka’s foremost agricultural research institutions. That partnership reflects a broader commitment to grounding its production standards in science rather than self-certification, and gives the Harithahari claim an independent layer of credibility that most competitors cannot match.

New Anthoney’s has also positioned itself as a future export business. Antibiotic-free certification is increasingly a non-negotiable requirement for entry into export markets, particularly in the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where food safety regulations are tightening around antimicrobial use. Establishing the production standard now, before export ambitions mature, means the company will not face a costly retrofit of its operations when it is ready to compete internationally.

Building awareness at every level

The challenge with AMR is that its consequences are diffuse and delayed, which makes it difficult to communicate with urgency. New Anthoney’s has approached this through layered awareness work that reaches different audiences in different ways.

Internally, the company has run staff awareness programmes at its Hanwella facilities, focusing specifically on the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and what antibiotic-free production actually requires from the people involved in it. These sessions covered the company’s own Harithahari protocols, the ethical basis for antibiotic-free farming, and the role each employee plays in maintaining standards that cannot be compromised at any point in the production chain.

Externally, New Anthoney’s has engaged industry peers, food sector stakeholders, and the wider public to make the case that responsible food production is not a niche concern. The company’s argument is straightforward: the same logic that governs responsible medicine use applies to food production. Antibiotics keep people alive. Overusing them, whether in hospitals or in chicken farms, erodes the very efficacy that makes them valuable.

Sri Lanka has a historically rich food culture, and New Anthoney’s frames its work within that tradition. Food that sustains people properly has always been a national value. What has changed is the industrial context in which food is now produced, and with it the responsibility that producers carry.

Why this matters now

The WHO’s Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance calls on all sectors, including agriculture and food production, to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial use and preserve the effectiveness of existing drugs. Sri Lanka adopted a National Action Plan on AMR in 2017, but implementation across the food sector has been uneven. Industry leadership, rather than regulation alone, will drive the change that the plan envisions.

New Anthoney’s is one of the few Sri Lankan poultry producers putting that leadership into practice at scale. Its model demonstrates that antibiotic-free production is commercially viable, scientifically defensible, and responsive to where consumer demand and regulatory standards are heading. For a country working to build export-credible food industries, that matters considerably.