Nutritional Enhancements in Broiler Chicken Diets
Summary
Advances in poultry nutrition have focused on optimising growth performance, feed efficiency and bird health through targeted dietary modifications. Key strategies include tailoring energy density via precise fat inclusion, supplementing exogenous emulsifiers or enzymes to improve lipid digestion, and incorporating alternative lipid sources such as acid oils and fatty acid distillates derived from refining by-products. Adjusting the ratio of dietary fat to fibre influences intestinal nutrient transporters and microbial consortia, thereby modulating carbohydrate metabolism and the tricarboxylic acid cycle in enterocytes. Emulsifiers enhance the formation of micelles and increase fat and fat-soluble nutrient uptake, reducing feed cost and environmental impact without compromising carcass quality. Standardisation and quality control of by-product lipids are essential to ensure consistent metabolizable energy contribution and minimise variability in broiler performance. Collectively, these enhancements support global sustainability goals by reducing reliance on conventional feedstuffs, improving resource use efficiency and lowering the carbon footprint of poultry production.
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Nutritional Enhancements in Broiler Chicken Diets publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in nutritional enhancements in broiler chicken diets across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Metabolizable energy (ME): The portion of dietary energy remaining after accounting for faecal, urinary and gaseous losses, available for maintenance and production.
Exogenous emulsifier: An added agent that promotes dispersion and micelle formation of dietary lipids in the gut, improving fat digestibility.
Tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle: A central mitochondrial pathway that oxidises acetyl-CoA to generate energy and precursors for biosynthesis.
Free fatty acids (FFA): Non-esterified fatty acids present in feed or released during hydrolysis, influencing absorption efficiency.
Gut microbiota: The complex community of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract and contributing to nutrient metabolism.
References
- Different fat-to-fiber ratios by changing wheat inclusion level impact energy metabolism and microbial structure of broilers. Frontiers in Microbiology (2024).
- A Mixture of Exogenous Emulsifiers Increased the Acceptance of Broilers to Low Energy Diets: Growth Performance, Blood Chemistry, and Fatty Acids Traits. Animals (2020).
- Composition and Nutritional Value of Acid Oils and Fatty Acid Distillates Used in Animal Feeding. Animals (2021).
- Methods to determine the quality of acid oils and fatty acid distillates used in animal feeding. MethodsX (2021).
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