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Water Quality Management: Addressing an Overlooked Essential Nutrient
If the sanitation of your livestock or poultry drinking water isn’t a priority today, it should be. Kemin sat down with Best Veterinary Solutions (BVS) Water Services Manager Mitch Downs to talk about today’s water-quality challenges — how they affect animal performance and how testing can help mitigate them. Here are some frequently asked questions that Downs answered for us.
The Gut's Role in Defending Animal Health
Gut health has made its stamp on livestock production as the gateway to animal health. We often think the gut's primary job is to digest valuable nutrients. But an immunologist may argue that a more important job of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is to prevent the infiltration of unwanted pathogens that can lead to illness and loss of productivity.
Gastrointestinal Microbiota Balance and Livestock Health
An animal's gastrointestinal (GI) tract is critical to its health and wellbeing. It's obvious that, without it, the animal would be unable to asorb nutrients. However, the role of the GI tract extends far beyond this function.
Eye on 'Biotics: Feeding Your Livestock and Poultry for Optimal Gut Health
The use of prebiotics and probiotics in livestock and poultry diets has become a common practice — and for good reason. Increased attention to and understanding of gut health in humans, pets and livestock have led to mroe research and effective solutions available on the market. In addition, producers are constantly searching for ways to fight pathogenic bacteria as antibiotic resistance grows.
Organic Acid's Dual Role: Improved Bird Health, Safer Processing
Bacteria are one of the major microbes present in poultry. While many bacteria are harmless, there are some pathogenic bacteria which can be detrimental to bird health and performance. Pathogenic bacteria present in poultry can be broadly classified into two categories. For a producer, these two different bacteria categories should both be addressed to make sure that the birds are performing well during the growth period and food safety is also supported.
Intestinal Injury Recovery: The Role of Feed Ingredients
All healthy animals’ gastrointestinal tract has one big thing in common: balance. A harmony and equilibrium exist between the microbiota, intestinal epithelial cells which carry out the digestive and absorptive function and the immune cells which carry out disease prevention and protection. Whenever this balance is disturbed, the health and performance of the animal is affected accordingly.
Stress Exposure Early in Life May Lead to Lifelong Negative Health Issues
Gut health is important throughout an animal’s life. But it’s particularly important early in life when gut health contributes to the development of a number of critical systems and functions including the gut itself. Poor gut health — which can be brought on by an array of microbial, social, environmental and physiological stressors — can lead to systemic health problems and reduced performance throughout an animal’s life.
Tannin Myth Busters: Four Myths About Tannins in Poultry Diets
Historically, tannins were considered a double-edged sword in poultry diets. Sometimes known for their bitter taste, tannins have traditionally been thought of as anti-nutritional factors in poultry diets. However, growing attention on the development of antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics among consumers has led to increased interest in evaluating alternative ingredients – including tannins – in poultry diets.
Four Keys to a Successful Coccidiosis Vaccination Program
Coccidiosis in poultry has historically been managed with chemical anticoccidials and ionophore antibiotics. However, concerns about decreasing sensitivity of Eimeria to current anticoccidials combined with the recent rise in antibiotic free (ABF) production has created a renewed industry-wide focus on identifying alternative strategies – like coccidiosis vaccination – to manage this ubiquitous poultry disease.
The Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Feed Additive Alternatives for Livestock and Poultry Producers
In livestock and poultry production, inflammation reduces profitability and product quality and endangers the health of the animals. Inflammation can occur in intensive, modern animal production systems. Controlling inflammation increases the likelihood of a positive ROI regarding feed conversion. As a result, commonly used antimicrobials in feed are now a proposed mode of action (MOA) to reduce instances of inflammation occurrence.
Three Tips to Maximize Turkey Gut Health
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a highly complex system which includes the structural intestinal epithelial barrier, a diverse commensal gut microbiota and a robust mucosal immune system. Crosstalk between these interrelated systems has a major influence on host physiology and metabolism. Imbalances in any of the three components can lead to negative gut health effects, such as poor nutrient absorption, diarrhea and more. Fortunately, by using proper management strategies, producers can keep these three gut health components in equilibrium, thereby helping birds stay healthy and productive.
Vaccination as a Tool in Evolving Broiler Coccidiosis Control
Coccidiosis is a complex, formidable challenge for broiler producers, especially those in antibiotic-free (ABF) systems. Historically managed with anticoccidial chemical drugs and antibiotics, two industry trends — the rise in ABF production and efforts to sustain the efficacy of available ionophore and chemical anticoccidials — have a growing number of producers looking to vaccines and other products to help control the parasitic disease that’s virtually ubiquitous in many production environments.
Four Benefits of Tannins for Poultry Gut Health
Poultry producers know a healthy gut is critical for optimal performance. Unfortunately, managing enteric challenges – like coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis – in antibiotic-free production systems is anything but easy. To protect poultry from disease, using feed additives – like tannins – that offer a wide-range of potential benefits for optimal gut health is key.
Knocking Down an Ever-Present Turkey Gut Health Threat
Turkey production is a critical component of the overall consumer food supply chain. Ensuring the efficient production of healthy birds — and the continued viability of turkey producers around the world — depends on prudent farm-level management, including minimizing gastrointestinal (GI) challenges to maximize productivity and feed efficiency.
The Gut-Bone Connection: Researchers continue discovering links between gut, overall health
The gastrointestinal system of a chicken can have a major influence on the bird’s overall health and productivity in ways that stretch well beyond the gut. Though a lot remains to be discovered about the many connections between the gastrointestinal tract and other internal systems, increasing scientific knowledge of costly bone and joint disorders — including one commonly called “kinky back” — is helping researchers develop products to enable producers to minimize economic and flock-health damage through management and preventative measures.
3 Tips to Maximize Vitamin Absorption
Involved in over 30 metabolic reactions, vitamins are essential for animal growth, health, reproduction and performance. But, for animals to appropriately utilize essential vitamins for metabolism, effective vitamin absorption is critical. When considering vitamin absorption, factors like gut health, vitamin form and vitamin solubility can significantly influence absorption. To maximize vitamin absorption, understanding how these factors can influence vitamin availability for absorption is key.
Phytogenic Feed Additives and Their Role in Poultry Pathogen Management
Antibiotics have long been a key component of effective disease control in human beings and animals alike. However, growing concerns about overuse and sustaining the efficacy of antibiotics among consumers has led to sweeping changes in the poultry industry.
Don't Let Unclean Water Rob Livestock Performance
When it comes to the performance of a production herd or flock, the source, quantity, quality and composition of water can have a major impact on how animals perform. Not only should water be available in sufficient quantities, but it should have the right balance in pH and minerals and other components in order to maximize digestive function, gut health and overall animal performance.
Multi-Faceted Approach has Researchers Nearing Woody Breast Solutions
Though it’s only been known in the chicken industry for around a decade, woody breast condition (WBC) has already proven to be a potentially costly issue for an industry tasked with feeding a growing global human population. Though the primary triggers of the condition are well-known, solutions are difficult to reach for an industry facing high production demand.
Genetics, Environment Contribute to Woody Breast Condition
More than 50 billion chickens enter the human food supply every year, and that number is expected to grow in the next decade to meet increasing food demand as world population continues to rise. The industry has responded to that growing demand; in the last five years alone, world broiler meat production has risen from 86.76 to 92.47 million metric tons per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service. Chicken as a human protein source alone has grown by 80 percent in the last decade, much faster than beef or pork.
Using Antibiotic Alternatives in Managing Gut Health
A healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract can help poultry achieve optimal production of meat or eggs. The GI tract for chicken has two essential functions: digestion/absorption and immunity. The intestinal mucosa provides an efficient barrier between unfriendly luminal content and the host's internal tissues. A cohesive alliance between the mucus layer, epithelial cells, microbiota and immune cells in the intestine is critical for the intestinal barrier functions.
The Importance of Intestinal Microbiota in Animal Performance
The digestive tract of a healthy chick is considered free from microorganisms at hatch. Afterwards, a microbial colonization evolves very quickly. At around 40 days in age, the microbiota becomes fully developed in birds, and the bacteria can be categorized as commensal or pathogenic. The bacterial population within broilers is very diverse comprised of over 900 species.
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