Proper nutrition the first 15 days of life helps ward off enteritis

Dr. José Barragan

Enteritis in broilers is most likely to strike from 15 to 30 days of life but can be warded off with good nutrition the first 2 weeks after hatch, said poultry nutrition specialist and consultant Dr. José Barragan, of Spain.

Dr. Barragan, who described the broiler’s intestines as a “complex ecosystem,” said that it takes about 15 days for the bird to develop a mature bacterial population.

“This is one of the reasons why broiler nutrition is so important during the first 15 days of life,” he said.

A top priority should be providing food that broilers will eat, Barragan continued. When there’s a problem related to nutrition during the first week of life, it’s often the physical presentation of the feed. He recommended micropellets because broilers will usually eat them readily. In addition, studies show that adding red dye to feed will further encourage eating.

The level of vitamins and sodium should be adequate, Barragan said, noting that, “It’s a good idea to increase the level of sodium because broilers will drink more, and if they drink more, they’ll probably eat more, too.” Amino acids are important, probably more so than the level of protein, he noted.

The ‘dangerous phase’

The 15- to 30-day stage of life is “the dangerous phase,” Barragan continued, because that’s when enteritis can develop. Broilers that had normal but perhaps wet droppings from 10 to 12 days of age develop big, wet droppings at about 15 to 18 days; then at 20 to 22 days of age they have evidence of undigested food in wet litter and orange droppings. The birds generally recover by age 32 to 35 days.

During the 15- to 30-day period, digestible raw materials in the diet are imperative. “If you reduce the ability of the broiler to absorb raw materials, you are creating conditions that ultimately will produce the problem of enteritis because food not absorbed by the bird will be used by bacterial populations,” Barragan explained. He cited a study demonstrating that if the quality of raw materials is reduced during this phase, the result is reduced performance reflected in less-than-optimal weight gain and feed conversion.

Identifying a digestion problem

Because many factors can lead to changes in the bacterial population and to enteritis — ranging from peristaltic movements to bacterial spores in the feed — it isn’t always easy to determine when nutrition is contributing to the problem. However, one way to help identify diet as a contributor is to test the level of protein and fats in feces.

“If you find an increase in the level of protein or fat in the feces, you know that you have a digestion problem and you need to check your raw materials,” Barragan said. “The idea is to adapt dietary formulations to the broiler gut. Don’t wait for broilers to adapt their gut to the diet.”

The nutritionist also recommended the use of feed additives that improve the balance of intestinal microflora and a less dangerous bacterial population.

If the gut of broilers is healthy by the time birds are 30 days of age, enteritis isn’t going to be a problem, nor is the quality of raw materials as important as it is earlier in life, he said.

Nevertheless, problems such as coccidiosis can occur during the end of production that can impair final weight gain. “Subclinical coccidiosis is a very dangerous problem at the end of the production time,” he said, so “avoid the fate of coccidiosis, hence, necrotic enteritis.”

Asked to elaborate on normal protein and fat levels in the feces of broilers, Barragan said what’s important is a change in levels. “If you usually have a protein level of about 12% and then it suddenly jumps to 16%, then you know you’ve got a digestion problem; the same applies to fats,” he said.

This seminar was presented at the 16th World Veterinary Poultry Association Congress, in Marrakech, Morocco.