Scientists from the Institute of Earth’s Cryosphere located in Siberia, say that feed producers in the future may replace feed antibiotics with a new type of bacteria which was discovered a few years ago in the permafrost, reported local media Interfax-Siberia.

According to the preliminary research a combination of these bacteria with colloidal silver can create an immunomodulatory drug , which in turn can be effectively used as an alternative for feed antibiotics in poultry farming.

Leading researcher from the Tyumen Scientific Center Andrei Subbotin reported, it is about some very old bacteria found in 3.5 million year old rocks in the Republic of Yakutia. Previously, these bacteria were unknown to the scientists and still it has no official name.

In a statement issued by the Tyumen Scientific Center: "At the end of the preliminary tests, scientists together with farmers, plan to start an experiment with thousands of chickens from local poultry production enterprises."

Scientists say that these bacteria may have great potential for use in animal feed. Experiments done on mice showed that the introduction of bacteria into their feed increased the duration of their lives and protected them against age-related blindness.