Improving gut health by conserving intestinal integrity


Gut health plays a critical role in broiler performance and is largely reliant on maintaining the intestinal integrity of the birds. Producers seeking to optimise feed conversion efficiency, growth rates and a reduction in costly veterinary interventions should focus on maintaining intestinal integrity as a means to improve health, welfare and performance.


BY ELANCO M


94 95 96 97 98


93 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Maxiban programme


aintaining a high degree of intestinal integrity (I2


) ensures the optimal functionality of the


intestinal tract. This is because the intestinal lining performs a


number of key functions such as digestion, secretion, absorption and transportation of nutrients. These functions are governed, positively and negatively, by the degree of intestinal integrity of each bird. Intestinal Integrity is affected by many things but two of the most critical are microbial infections and diet.


The impact of coccidia infections Coccidiosis costs global poultry producers more than USD$ 4 billion in losses every year. This is because poor intestinal integrity, caused by coccidiosis, can increase FCR by as much as 10 points as well as negatively impact mortality rates and body weight gains. Combined costs for all these parameters


Figure 1 - I2 scores for flocks receiving continuous Maxiban vs. flocks on rotation programmes.


intestinal integrity Rotation programme


can be as much as US $10.2 cents/bird, sometimes even higher. Despite this challenge, there are steps producers can take to proactively protect their birds’ Intestinal Integrity in order to promote optimal feed efficiency and weight gains.


Protecting I2 and gut health


For many decades anticoccidial molecules have been extensively used as in-feed additives to maintain intestinal integrity and, as a consequence, gut health and bird performance. Anticoccidial treatments fall into two groups, chemical anticoccidials and ionophore anticoccidials. Chemical anticoccidials have worked well for severe challenges, but it has been observed that longer-term usage can result in increased resistance. Contrastingly, ionophores have proven effective in preventing coccidiosis while also allowing the birds’ natural immunity to develop in order to mitigate the risk of resistance.


Maxiban programme introduced


Potentiated ionophores Potentiated ionophores are in feed supplements which combine two synergistic ionophore molecules, each included at lower dose rates than their ‘stand-alone’ inclusion rates. This has the advantage of not ‘selecting’ for resistance which may explain why the Narasin + Nicarbazin (Maxiban) combination is able to be used continuously without rotation. This continuous use is supported by EU performance and health data from the field. When three years of continuous Maxiban usage was analysed there was no evidence for any loss of intestinal health, coccidiosis control or broiler performance. On the contrary, performance of flocks using Maxiban continuously over this extended period was superior at all times to those flocks adopting ionophore rotation programmes (Figure 1).


20 ▶ GUT HEALTH | DECEMBER 2020


PHOTO: ELANCO


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