Enabling broilers to operate at maximum metabolic efficiency is a realistic goal since the feed represents the greatest single expenditure associated with poultry production. Nutritional research in poultry has therefore centred on issues related to identifying barriers to effective digestion and utilization of nutrients and on approaches for improving feed utilization. Poultry nutritionists have increasingly combined their expertise with that of specialists in other biological sciences, including immunology, microbiology, histology and molecular biology. Although broilers and layers are highly efficient in converting feed to food products, they still excrete significant amounts of unutilized nutrients. Much of the inefficiency results from the presence of undesirable components and the indigestibility of nutrients in the feed.

The use of the performance enhancer is indeed important to bring down the days required to reach the market weight or increasing the day weight gain in commercial birds. Withdrawal of antibiotics from poultry feeds created need for alternative solutions which would influence improvement of health and production traits of broiler chickens. There are some alternative performance enhancers like probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, antioxidants, acidifiers and phytogenic additives. They all in majority of cases demonstrated positive effect on health and performance of broiler chickens, but each of them have certain limitations which make them unable to meet the ideal performance enhancer's characteristics.

• Should be effective and economical for regular use
   
• Should not be absorbed from the gut into edible tissue (residual effect)
   
• Should not be involved with transferable drug resistance as well as cross-resistance
   
• Should be readily bio-degradable and non-toxic to birds and human handlers

Article made possible through the contribution of Natural Remedies.