Sourced summaries of the latest global research in poultry and animal nutrition, written in plain language with links back to the original studies.
Plant-derived additives — herbal extracts and essential oils such as thymol, carvacrol and garlic extract — have become one of the leading natural alternatives for improving gut health without relying on antibiotics. A recent review found that carvacrol increases beneficial, butyrate-producing bacteria in the caecum, while garlic supplementation at 0.125% improved intestinal villus length and absorptive surface area, alongside reducing colonization by harmful bacteria such as Clostridium perfringens and E. coli.
With global soybean meal prices fluctuating, black soldier fly larvae meal has become one of the most researched alternative protein sources. A comprehensive review found the larvae contain 40-60% crude protein and 15-35% fat depending on their rearing substrate, with safe inclusion levels in broiler diets ranging from 4% to 25% without harming performance. A separate study found that replacing soybean meal with larvae meal improved feed efficiency in laying hens aged 22-30 weeks.
Heat stress is one of the biggest drivers of lost summer performance. A recent review identified four effective functional nutrients: glutamine (0.5-1.5% of the diet), which strengthens the intestinal barrier and boosts antioxidant capacity; vitamin C (200-300 mg/kg), which lowers stress-induced corticosterone; vitamin E (100-250 mg/kg), which protects cell membranes and reduces abdominal fat; and chromium (0.4-1 mg/kg), which improves glucose metabolism and insulin response under high heat.
A recent study compared a conventional broiler diet with a reduced crude-protein diet (22% to 19% in the starter phase, 20% to 18% in the grower phase) that was carefully balanced with essential amino acids. Growth performance stayed comparable between groups, with feed conversion actually improving during the grower phase, while nitrogen excretion dropped by a cumulative 31.1% — an important gain for reducing ammonia in poultry houses.
Researchers at Penn State University tested 320 day-old chicks over 21 days across four dietary treatments. Adding Bacillus subtilis (a probiotic) significantly increased the abundance of beneficial gut microorganisms compared to a standard diet, approaching the effect of a conventional antibiotic. The lead researcher cautioned that this research is still in its early stages, and that "natural" does not automatically mean more effective than conventional antibiotics.
Corn and soybean meal contamination with mycotoxins such as aflatoxin is a major feed-quality risk in hot, humid climates. A recent study tested a commercial toxin binder in broilers fed aflatoxin-contaminated feed, finding that the higher dose (1.6 g/kg) substantially cut aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A residues in the meat, while the lower dose (1.1 g/kg) achieved the best feed conversion ratio at 1.38. Notably, the higher dose also activated endogenous stem cells in the spleen, an indicator of improved immune resilience.
A recent review examined how artificial intelligence is entering poultry nutrition: from sensor systems that track feed intake, weight, activity and health indicators in real time to predict each flock's nutrient needs, to models that simulate thousands of possible feed formulations to evaluate their impact on growth, feed conversion and cost before implementation. The review cited a machine-learning model trained on more than 438,000 data samples that achieved a correlation of 0.85 between predicted and actual feed-conversion values.
Phosphorus is one of the most expensive components of poultry feed, and much of it in plant sources like corn and soybean meal is locked up as unavailable "phytate." Multiple recent studies confirm that high-dose phytase supplementation ("super-dosing") releases phytate-bound phosphorus and reduces the need for costly inorganic phosphorus, while improving growth rate and bone strength — sometimes with additional benefits beyond simple phosphorus replacement.
Get in touch and we'll help you choose the right formula based on the latest scientific practice.
