NUTRITION ▶▶▶
Improving gut health in the antibiotic-free era
A healthy chicken gut is essential to optimise feed digestibility, maximum nutrient absorption, immunity development and disease resistance. Disruption of gut integrity and an imbalance in gut microbiota can have adverse effects on feed conversion, productivity and bird health.
BY ANJAN MONDAL, NOVUS A
ntibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) have been widely used in poultry diets over the past few dec- ades to promote growth, improve feed efficiency and control dysbacteriosis and enteric diseases.
Unfortunately, the extensive use of antibiotic growth promot- ers at subtherapeutic doses in poultry diets can generate an- tibiotic resistant pathogens in animal products. Antibiot- ic-free poultry production is a common trend worldwide because, along with increasing concerns about antibiotic re- sistance, governments in many countries have banned the use of antibiotics. These circumstances have led to the search
for alternative strategies to modulate gut development and health in poultry.
Feed quality • Optimum nutrient digestion and absorption depends on high quality feed ingredients.
• Feed particle size is very important for gizzard develop- ment. A well-developed gizzard is essential to enhance grinding activity, leading to increased gut motility and greater digestion of nutrients, as well as a greater reduc- tion in particle size entering the small intestine, ultimately increasing the accessibility of the feed to digestive en- zymes. Poor pellet quality and excess fine particles can re- duce gizzard function which can increase the incidence of feed passage (i.e. undigested feed in the animal’s waste) and dysbacteriosis or a microbial imbalance.
• High levels of antinutritional factors in the feed can lead to poor digestibility, resulting in more undigested protein in the intestinal lumen. The presence of undigested protein in the lumen favours the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria, such as Clostridium perfringens. Supplementing the diet with good quality exogenous protease enzyme has been shown to considerably improve protein digestibility.
• High concentrations of trypsin inhibitors in diets have a negative effect on nutrient digestibility and gut health. Trypsin inhibitors are directly correlated with rapid feed passage and dysbacteriosis. Thermal processing of soybean meal is critical because adverse effects from undercooked or overcooked soybean meal on digestion have been cited. Undercooked soybean meal has higher concentrations of trypsin inhibitors, whereas overcooking
Antibiotic-free poultry production is a common trend worldwide because, along with increasing concerns about antibiotic resistance, governments in many countries have banned the use of antibiotics.
36 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2021
PHOTO: HERBERT WIGGERMAN
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
