Understanding the importance of a good start

Written by Jan Vervloesem, Global lead poultry at Agrifirm

Success in growing poultry – whether broilers, turkeys, ducks, layers, breeders , or other poultry – is strongly dependent on an eye for detail. The production process is subject to many different challenges that cause stress to the animals.

Although poultry is considered to be homeothermic – with a thermal neutral zone in which it behaves and performs best – in the first couple of days, the poultry’s metabolism is not able to self-regulate the optimal body temperature. Any deviation from this ideal body temperature will have a negative impact on its future development. Temperature stress, heat- or cold-stress, or any other kind of stress significantly affects the physiological and immunological development of the day-old chicks in the brooding period.

Depending on the hatching system – whether on-farm hatching or not – the process of hatching, handling, chick transport, vaccination, beak-trimming and chick placement significantly affects the functioning of poultry. Even stressors affecting the production process of hatching eggs have an impact on day-old chick quality. For instance, this results in reduced presence of maternal antibodies, contamination with pathogenic bacteria (E. coli, Salmonella, etc.), a lack of nutrients in the yolk essential for good embryo development and embryo protection, poor weight and poor uniformity, broad hatch window, and so on. Knowing that day-old chick quality and healthy development in the first days are impacted negatively by poor brooding conditions – including poor nutrition – it is of utmost importance that poultry producers try to prevent day-old chick quality from deteriorating and, conversely, try to improve it with food safety in mind.

Both consumers and authorities no longer accept the use of antibiotics in the brooding period to ‘mask’ the effect of poor day-old chick quality or poor brooding conditions. Improved management and improved nutritional strategies that provide the necessary nutrients and functionalities to cope with stressors and minimize their negative effects have become the new approach. As is generally known, due to the fact that their immune system is still immature and their gut morphology and activity are still under development, day-old chicks have less capacity to regulate the complex interaction between stressor and poultry than older birds. To compensate for this, poultry producers can apply pre-starter feeds or pre-starter concepts.

The concept of pre-starter feed means that a specific feed – adapted to the nutritional needs of day-old chicks and also containing functional feed ingredients to reduce stressors and better cope with their effects – is fed upon arrival or after hatching on-farm for a limited time.

Producing poultry meat is not limited to the growing period. This process includes hatching eggs and incubation, which takes an average of 32 to 75 weeks (Figure 1). Growing standard broilers only takes +/- 4 to 7 weeks, which is about 5 to 15% of the time of the total process.

Feeding a specially developed pre-starter feed for 2 days (max. 3 days for smaller day-old chicks) is a very cost-effective way to minimize the effect of different day-old chick quality in this process and to standardize the start of growing broilers. This pre-starter feed can be fed either as a micro pellet or as a crumble on paper in the poultry house – and this not only facilitates accessibility but also improves feed consumption. In addition to these benefits, dehydration of individual chicks is also prevented thanks to improved water consumption. Improved feed intake and increased water consumption – together with protection against potential stressors – results in greater weight gain, better uniformity, and reduced mortality during the first week.

GalliFirst, which, in addition to its nutritional aspects, focuses additionally on 4 essential functionalities to improve the start of growing poultry:

1) modulating the microbiome in favor of Lactobacilli and reducing the risk of the presence of pathogenic bacteria, 2) improving the chick’s anti-oxidative capacity by increasing the secretion of anti-oxidative liver enzymes and by neutralizing free radicals, 3) stimulating the development of the intestinal morphology as well as stimulating its activity to improve digestibility, and 4) stimulating feed intake itself, as there is a direct relation between feed intake and performance.

These essential functionalities are incorporated by the presence of M-prove and Vitanox in the GalliFirst pre-starter feed. Prof. Ceylan et al. (2023) have indicated that M-prove in broilers not only significantly improves the villus height/crypt depth (VH/CD) ratio, but it also increases the number of goblet cells. This is especially important during the first week of life, as the life-cycle of enterocytes is relatively long (up to 10 days). Preventing inflammation or oxidation of these cells is extremely important in reducing long-term effects.

In addition to M-prove’s antibacterial activity, this additive modulates the intestinal microbiome significantly in favor of Lactobacilli – and this results in improved cecal fermentation supplying extra energy to the enterocytes and an improved re-absorption of water and minerals (this is evidenced by cleaner vents in the poultry house). Applying M-prove stimulates the development of the pancreas and the secretion of digestive enzymes not only in the pancreas but also in the intestine. These effects also contribute to improved body weight and flock uniformity.

M-prove is also known for its positive effect on feed consumption. Although pre-starter feed is only given for 2 to max. 3 days, at a maximum volume of 30 grams, feeding 1 or 2 days more is possible, if necessary.

From day-old to approximately day 7, the liver index (liver weight to body weight ratio, Figure 2) increases, and from then on declines. Any negative impact on the liver’s development during the first week will affect performance later on, as the liver is involved in many metabolic and detoxifying processes.

Protecting the liver from oxidative stress is key in this process. Vitanox, a natural highly bioavailable antioxidant, prevents liver oxidation and, at the same time, improves the functioning of the tight junctions, which reduces the risk of toxins or bacteria entering the vascular system.

By feeding GalliFirst to day-old chicks, poultry producers ‘standardize’ day-old chick quality and the start of the growing process – thereby reducing the risk of negative impacts from multiple stressors and ensuring the higher probability of a successful growing process.

Finally, if it is known that the day-old chicks have poor maternal immunity and that their immune system may be suppressed, applying C-prove 80 via the drinking water will additionally support the chicks in responding better to vaccinations – which again ensures better and more uniform protection over a longer period.