The company had been working toward that goal for some time, ceasing the use of antibiotics in its hatcheries last year and adopting feed free of antibiotics this year.

Then McDonald's, the sprawling restaurant chain that is one of Tyson's biggest customers, said in March that it planned over the next two years to rid its supply chains of chicken treated with antibiotics important to human medicine.

At that time, health advocates and investment analysts predicted Tyson would take the final steps to eliminate the drugs from its chicken production. The company said in a news release that it would begin meeting with groups of farmers who produce pork, turkey and cattle for Tyson under contract to come up with a plan for eliminating antibiotic use in their programs.

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