Influence of Diet on Digestive Microflora and Gut Health of the Chicken

The poultry industry has been accompanied by the emergence of a large variety of pathogens and bacterial resistance due to the increase in production scales and the use of Antibiotic Growth Promoters (AGP). As a result, poultry become more sensitive to harmful bacteria such as Escherichia Coli, Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens and Campylobacter jejunum. There are considerable numbers of producers that depend on AGP in feed to overcome these diseases. With consumers pressure about the use of antibiotics in animal feed and its link to the increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the European Union has decided to ban the antibiotics as feed additives in January, 1 st 2006. In the US the poultry industry is facing a possible ban of antibiotic feed additives, and there is a growing interest in finding valuable alternatives to prevent diseases. Therefore, many activities were initiated to establish other substances with beneficial effects on animals via modification of the intestinal microflora. Among these alternatives to antibiotics are probiotics or direct-fed microbs (DFM). The effects of probiotic or DFM on gut health and performance in poultry is well documented. Several studies demonstrated an improvement in birds fed diets with probiotics in a challenge disease model. In addition several researches and data presented in this presentation suggest that probiotics have the potential to improve bird gut health and to overcome growing challenge in poultry production.