The Role of Postbiotics in Promoting Gut Health in Poultry

In a world where the demand for poultry products is steadily rising, the poultry industry faces a dual challenge: meeting consumer needs for safe and abundant food while reducing its dependence on antibiotics. Antibiotics have traditionally been used in poultry production to enhance gut health and overall performance. However, growing concerns about the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock production have prompted a search for holistic approaches that encompass management and nutrition to support antibiotic stewardship. Among these holistic approaches, postbiotics have emerged as a promising tool to improve gut health and host defense in poultry.

The Importance of Gut Health

The significance of gut health in poultry production cannot be overstated. A healthy gut is essential for the proper digestion and absorption of nutrients, ensuring that poultry receives the necessary nourishment for growth and development. Moreover, the gut is crucial in helping poultry withstand the stressors they encounter along their gastrointestinal journey and maintain homeostasis. Factors such as developmental stages, immune status, feed quality, changes in feeding phases, environmental stressors, management practices, and pathogens can all disrupt homeostasis and affect gut health.

Maintaining the integrity of gut tissue, fostering a healthy microbiome, and supporting an effective immune system are the key components of a healthy gut. From a production perspective, gut health directly influences animal performance, welfare, and food safety.

The Need for Alternative Approaches

Antibiotics have been a cornerstone of poultry production, enhancing gut health and overall performance. However, the poultry industry is shifting towards alternative approaches that reduce antibiotic use due to the associated challenges and concerns about developing antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These approaches encompass both management and nutrition. Among these alternatives, postbiotics are gaining recognition for their potential to promote gut health and host defense in poultry.

Understanding Postbiotics

The International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) defines postbiotics as "a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confer a health benefit on the host." Postbiotics result from controlled fermentation processes, which yield various biologically active substances, including proteins, small peptides, oligosaccharides, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other metabolites. The complex nature of fermentation means that postbiotics can vary based on the microorganisms, substrates, and environmental conditions involved.

One of the key advantages of postbiotics over prebiotics and probiotics is their ability to affect the host without further in vivo utilization. Postbiotics can also maintain stability across industrial feed processing and long-term storage, making them readily available to poultry. Furthermore, postbiotic products can be quite intricate, containing many compounds, setting them apart from single or few-compound feed additives.

Benefits of Postbiotics in Poultry Gut Health

Several postbiotic products, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SCFP), have shown potential benefits in various animals, including poultry. SCFP has been found to have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immunomodulatory, anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, antihypertensive, antiproliferative, and hypocholesterolemic properties. Scientific studies support the inclusion of SCFP in poultry diets, demonstrating improvements in body weight, feed conversion ratio, meat yield in broilers and turkeys, and egg weight, yolk weight, and hatchability in layers and breeders.

SCFP operates through multiple modes of action, including immune modulation, which enhances the innate immune response and accelerates the adaptive immune response. This improves humoral and cellular immune responses, particularly in vaccine response and disease resistance. Additionally, SCFP supports the alleviation and recovery from stress responses in poultry, which can harm gut health. It also modulates the gut microbiome, favoring beneficial bacterial populations and reducing pathogenic organisms such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. Moreover, SCFP has been shown to improve gut integrity, leading to better nutrient utilization and improved production performance.

Conclusion

As the global population grows, the demand for poultry products is expected to rise. However, the poultry industry faces challenges in meeting these demands while ensuring environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The key to long-term success in poultry production lies in applying scientific knowledge and modern tools to optimize gut health.

Postbiotics, with a special emphasis on SCFP, are emerging as a promising tool for poultry producers to fulfill consumer expectations and ensure global food security sustainably. SCFP's dual action in promoting gut health by maintaining immune strength and optimizing digestive health can support performance, animal welfare, and food safety in antibiotic-free poultry production. By embracing postbiotics, the poultry industry can move closer to its goal of reducing antibiotic usage while maintaining high standards of production and animal welfare.