Poultry Gut Health: Pt. 2- Challenges to Gut Health

Learn more about poultry gut health on our blog! www.southlando...
The biggest challenge to poultry gut health is harmful bacteria. This is where we get "Poultry Biosecurity" from-all the biosecurity measures you take, like reducing traffic on your farm, using boot powder and sanitizing, are key to preventing devastating bacterial diseases on your farm.
Harmful bacteria, like Clostridium, exist in chickens' guts naturally. Southern Poultry Research Group's Dr. Hofacre found that there are as many as 600-800 strains of bacteria in an average broiler chicken's gut. So even with the strictest of biosecurity measures, bacteria can still pose a huge issue on a poultry farm.
The already existing bacteria become a real problem when birds face other challenges, like stress. The gut reacts to irritation by creating mucus. The mucus prevents the bird from absorbing feed in their gut, which can hurt your feed conversion. Cutting mucus is one of the reasons a lot of poultry farmers choose to use apple cider vinegars, like Mother Load, in their chickens' water.
When mucus is not cut, it provides a food source for bacteria Clostridium. This is when they multiply, divide and really get out of control. When Clostridium proliferates, it even creates a toxin that attacks the bird's organs. This is one of the main causes of necrotic enteritis!
But this incident is not isolated to Clostridium. Mycotoxins, feed outages and other gut irritants can cause the gut to create mucus and begin this vicious cycle. At best, this means reduced performance and at worst, it means high mortality.
Gut health also impacts factors like wet litter, which translates to poor paw quality and promotes growth of unhealthy bacteria in litter that then cause disease... and the cycle continues.
Dr. Hofacre mentioned organic acids, pharmaceuticals and probiotics as effective means for mitigating these gut challenges.

[@SundryTalesOfConstance79WESTY]

Nooice! 😎 STOC Thanks for caring and sharing as I am new to all of this and want the best for my chickens.

[@PoultryBiosecurity]

Thanks so much for watching! Glad this was helpful.

[@matthewperales4370]

Love this show very educational

[@PoultryBiosecurity]

Thank you for that comment. That keep us going.

[@matthewperales4370]

💯