Natural growth promoters have potential in poultry feeding systems

摘要

Antibiotic growth promoters are banned in Europe and many countries in the future will follow suit. The search for alternatives will be an ongoing quest. Scientists with the Project Directorate on Poultry (ICAR) in India conclude that natural growth promoters can benefit poultry when a replacement for antibiotics is sought. During the rearing period, chickens are succumbed to various kinds of stresses such as overcrowding, vaccination, chilling, high environmental temperature, humidity, debeaking, transportation, and so forth, which all adversely affect their production performances. In addition, the birds' feed, water and environment are loaded with both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria, which may reduce the digestibility of nutrients and maycause disease outbreaks, particularly during immune suppression caused due to the stressors mentioned. The traditional remedy to fight all these stressors is the use of antibiotics, which are added at sub-therapeutic levels. A beneficial effect of the use of so-called antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) is that they improve growth and feed efficiency.