With our tools for disease control becoming limited, proper and increased attention to nutrition and feed—as an effective lever in prevention and treatment—is increasingly important.
Maintaining poultry health is a challenge that is increasingly being targeted with the lever of nutrition. With the development of new strategies based on the prohibition of antibiotic use, our knowledge about “the role of nutrition in health” has also grown and expanded.
About a year and a half ago, a group of scientists presented scientific and promotional content at conferences focusing on “the role and efficiency of nutrition in maintaining flock health.” Here is a summary of what these researchers discussed.
Poultry Disease Management
Dr. Steve R. Collett from the University of Georgia Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center said:
In intensive poultry farming systems, without the use of antibiotic growth promoters, we will face severe growth and proliferation of gut microbes.
Since poultry farming is the economic conversion of feed into food, controlling these risks and the consequent diseases becomes critically important.
However, diseases only become apparent in the flock when a functional disruption in metabolism or vital balance processes manifests as a noticeable decline in production or economic efficiency.
Even the smallest intestinal changes have a significant impact on the feed conversion ratio.
The cause of this is either the lack of appetite and refusal to eat by the sick bird or the specific effects of the disease on physiological processes, metabolic nutrition, respiration, or excretion.
In contrast, while respiratory diseases are easily identifiable based on early external symptoms, mild gastrointestinal infections are very dangerous and insidious because birds eat and drink “normally” until the disease becomes fully advanced.
He added: Current methods for assessing intestinal health are based on examining and grading lesions. While even the smallest microscopic changes in the intestinal villi and grooves have a significant impact on the feed conversion ratio, this method does not have the capability to detect early changes in overall intestinal health.
Dr. Collett said: Today’s composition of the intestinal microflora of poultry largely reflects centuries of selection and breeding, with changes accelerated and made more complex by rapid genetic selection programs and the use of antibiotics in feed.
Since the selective levers during the transfer of microbial populations to new growth sites are numerous, progress in selecting breeds and varieties to improve and optimize microflora over time is possible.
Although environmental pathogenic microbes are minimized through flock depletion, washing programs, and biosecurity, intestinal pathogenic microbes resurface with any minor manipulation, whereas beneficial intestinal microflora only improve incrementally through continuous reinforcement.
Dr. Collett stated: The fundamental results and apparent benefits of healthy digestion and absorption can be observed through “increasing the concentration and availability of materials in the bird’s body” or “reducing the amount of added nutrients to the diet without adverse effects on health.”
For example, adding organic acids or enzymes to the diet and subsequently reducing the percentage of nutrients helps mitigate the adverse effects of poor digestion due to microbial diversity.
Dr. Collett concluded that to succeed without chemicals and antibiotics, we need to discover alternative tools. Most gastrointestinal diseases have multiple causes, and completely eradicating them is very difficult or impossible due to the continuous change of the intestinal microbial population.
Nutritional Treasures
Dr. Brooke D. Humphrey from the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences at the University of Maryland Research Park spoke about the effects of immune system activation on behavioral and physiological changes that help destroy pathogenic microbes in poultry.
He said: Many of these changes reduce the bird’s ability to reach its maximum genetic potential. When the bird is fighting disease, much like two sides of a scale, increased immune system activity coincides with reduced performance.
In such times, minimizing the bird’s expenditure on immune resistance is an important way to improve performance and help the bird’s welfare.
Since the immune system requires nutrients in the right amounts and times to ensure proper growth, maintenance, and performance, creative nutrition helps us achieve this goal.
When designing and composing a diet suitable for an optimal immune response, the type and amount of proposed nutrients should be specially considered in terms of complete supply and which aspect of immune activity they are designed for.
Providing amounts based only on the bird’s minimum requirements—what can be called necessary provision—negatively affects the immune response and overall bird health.
Even nutritional approaches to enhance immune function should focus on supplying nutrients that improve diet components to enhance immune performance, stimulating the bird’s “desire.”
Feeding with organic acids, probiotics, and prebiotics leads to gut health and strengthens the intestinal and systemic immune response to pathogens.
Although the exact mechanisms of these substances in influencing immune performance are not clear, their use strengthens the blood, cellular, and innate immune systems.
Probiotic Domination
Dr. Richard Ducatel, another speaker from the University of Ghent, said:
The continuous challenge of the digestive tract is to distinguish friend from foe—or self from non-self. Nevertheless, there are many bacterial strains that have positive effects on intestinal health and improve its balance, collectively known as probiotics.
It has become increasingly clear that poor digestion and “anti-nutritional factors” interact, creating a subclinical inflammatory response in the intestinal mucosa, reducing overall performance and sometimes causing disease.
For this reason, various nutritional additives have been designed to enhance digestion and neutralize the effects of these “anti-nutritional factors” in the diet.
It has been proven that feeding with these additives, including probiotics, guarantees results in treating inflammatory diseases of the intestines and other organs.
The future fate of improving gut health through feed additives lies in the sufficiency or adequacy of molecules that act as green lights for beneficial microbes and red lights for pathogenic microbes.
Herbal Additives
Elias Gian Tanas from the Laboratory of Nutrition and Livestock Farming at the University of Thessaly explained that among the alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters, aromatic plants, plant extracts, and essential oils hold a strong and high position.
Over the past 20-30 years, scientists have seriously realized how effective traditional remedies are.
Aromatic plants and their derivatives have antimicrobial and antiparasitic activities, and their antiviral and antioxidant effects have also been identified. Spices and their metabolites stimulate the immune system.
However, the effects of aromatic plants and their derivatives on the life, growth, and performance of poultry—likely due to their effect on gut microflora and bird metabolism—are highly variable.
The possibility of their effectiveness is not only limited to the digestive microflora and intestinal protozoa but often extends to their metabolism. Their variable composition is also considered a factor.
