The role of different sources of fibre and feed particle size in broiler chicken - Sarbarst Qassim

Tuesday 1st November 2016.

The ban and voluntary removal of in-feed antibiotics in the poultry industry throughout the world have led to the emergence of wet litter and enteric disorders. This results in poor performance of the birds thus reduced productivity and profit for the industry. To tackle such problems, alternative strategies have been sought which include the modulation of gut microflora, augmentation of immune response and control of pathogens through management, nutritional strategies and/or feed additives. These measures have shown to improve the health and digestive efficiency and thus improve growth performance of broiler chickens.

One of those strategies is incorporating structural components of feed, such as coarse fiber or ingredient in the diet. It is well documented that feeding birds with structural components of feed, such as coarse fiber or ingredient, modulate the gastrointestinal tract specially increasing the gizzard size. Large and well-developed gizzard can increase its grinding activity, leading to pancreatic enzyme secretion through increased release of cholecystokinin from pancreas, increased proteolysis by pepsin, trypsin and other endogenous proteases in the small intestine and improved GIT motility. It has been hypothesised that the feeding birds with fibre improve nutrient digestibility, growth performance, gut health, litter quality and bird welfare via enhanced GIT tract function, greater digesta transit time and improve faecal quality.

Our study aimed to investigate the effect of different sources of fibres along with different feed particle sizes on gizzard development, growth performance, nutrient digestibility, bird welfare and litter quality. The talk will present our findings which show the potential to use course ingredients and fibre to improve gut health, litter quality and  growth performance of birds.