Early Life Nutrition in Poultry

In recent years, novel ingredients have been introduced as a nutritional strategy to help support the immune system, promote intestinal function, and increase tolerance to stress and disease challenges in Poultry. Maintenance of a good symbiotic relationship between the host animal and the intestinal micro-flora is the critical component in the development of good nutritional strategies. Current commercial farming conditions can introduce various stressors affecting the intestine, which can lead to digestive disturbances, often manifested as diarrhea. An ideal route for optimizing broiler performance would be to establish a healthy and balanced gut microbiome at the beginning of its formation. The feeding of broilers by farmers starts immediately after hatch, special care during this early feeding has been seen to help with development of the chick's organs, immune system and can also result in better performance in broilers.

Feeding strategies should look into the use of nutrients or appropriate nutraceutical products to enhance beneficial microbes and help realize full genetic potential. There are numerous factors influencing gut health, development and microflora that we would like to explore in this Research Topic, such as:
- Hygiene conditions,
- Pathogen load of the ingredients,
- Humidity,
- Feed additives,
- Enzymes,
- Probiotics,
- Prebiotics,
- Acidifiers

This Research Topic aims to build upon the current knowledge on the following issues in Poultry:
• Early nutrition and gut health
• Early nutrition and epigenetic programming
• Feed additives and early establishment of gut microflora
• Early nutrition and immunity