Not all losses in poultry production include warning signs. Some of the most destructive ones are those that manifest quietly on a day-to-day basis in the intestinal tract. Enteric stress compromises digestion and barrier function, compelling birds to shift more resources from growth to cope with the injury. This leads to diminished feed efficiency, impaired immunity, and diminished performance before the onset of recognizable sick birds.
The economic cost is high. Necrotic enteritis alone exacts over USD 6 billion per year from the worldwide poultry industry, let alone heat stress that imposes additional losses of USD 128-165 million every year on poultry production in the US. What holds poultry industries back is that these intestinal problems lie among the silent ones that do not set warning signals, although they contribute consistently to diminished poultry performance and poultry survival rates on a day-to-day basis. This necessitates attention to poultry intestinal health from mere supportive initiatives to fundamental necessities in poultry production.
Enteric stress compromises performance in poultry through progressive impairment of intestinal function. Thermal stress, pathogens, and nutrient imbalances contribute to impairment of the intestinal barrier by making digestion less efficient and immune responses less adequate. This optimizes the barrier for increased intestinal susceptibility to biotic imbalance, thus optimal conditions for dysbacteriosis and subsequent necrotic enteritis are established. Laboratory research in veterinary studies clarifies that immune changes mediated by stress alter the intestinal barrier by leading to increased levels of bacterial toxins in the bloodstream as a result of infiltration through the damaged barrier due to changes in the junctional proteins.
The negative impacts of these are cumulative but without any clear warning signs. Subclinical forms of necrotic enteritis are associated with constant damage to the guts and impaired nutrient absorption without any apparent signs. Since death rates are still low, the impacts of these are not immediately noticed, yet they mean reduced growth rates and reduced profitability, making subclinical damage to the guts among the costliest and most difficult issues in modern poultry-keeping.
There are some biological solutions that actually work.
Biological tools are providing the most beneficial advancements in the management of enteric health, as compared to chemicals. Performance levels of probiotics, organic acid-based substances, and functional components of plants are now proving to be equal to and even better than antibiotic growth promoters. Immunological and animal feed researches have established that specific strains of probiotics can significantly decrease the amount of Clostridium perfringens bacteria in the small intestines of poultry, besides minimizing tissue injuries due to necrotic enteritis. This makes them a potential alternative to antibiotics.
Complementary research in animal biotechnology indicates a beneficial response to protected mixtures of essential oils and organic acids significantly improving feed efficiency in enteric challenged models. Such models are associated with intestinal morphology improvement, including enhanced villus formation and reduced pathogen pressure, even in models with conditions inducing necrotic enteritis.
The biological mechanism is clearly understood. Beneficial bacteria produce short-chain organic acids, which decrease the pH in the gut, thereby preventing the growth of pathological bacteria and helping in immune response and phagocytosis. On the other hand, probiotic bacteria like Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Bacillus enhance gut resilience by competing for adhesion sites, producing bacteriocins, activating enzymes, and preserving the integrity of the barrier.
Various commercial and research field trials have confirmed these mechanisms. It has been observed that the supplementation of probiotics helps in the enhancement of mucosal barrier health and normalizes the microbiota with an effective reduction of ensuing necrotic enteritis-induced ileal damage. Such microbiota-based approaches consistently ensure improved growth and reductions in the use of antibiotics in different recreate systems, thus proving themselves to be reliable alternatives for the poultry industry.
As a result of the ban on the use of in-feed antibiotics, there has been a paradigm shift in the poultry sector regarding the control of enteric health. Since there are reduced pharmaceutical options, the poultry sector has been forced to embrace solutions for managing gut challenges, which do not fuel antimicrobial resistances. Biological solutions have proven effective, as they enhance performance while meeting the required standards.
There is proof from nutrition and immunology science that probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, and oils have positive effects on digestion efficiency, immune competence, and broiler growth in commercial settings. These practices differ from antibiotics in that they exert effects through more than one mechanism, modulating microbiota, improving barriers in the intestines, and optimizing feed utilization. Biological approaches target enteric stress on its root cause and not its symptom, as was common with approaches in the antibiotic age and thereby maintaining productivity and profit while incurring microbiological resistances to illness.
