Beneficial effects of phytoadditives in broiler nutrition

During the past fifteen years, phytoadditives in animal nutrition have attracted attention for their potential role as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. The goal of this paper is to review the current scientific data on the use of phytoadditives in broiler nutrition. The efficacy of phytogenic applications in broiler nutrition depends on several factors, such as composition and feed inclusion level of phytogenic preparations, bird genetics, and overall diet composition. Difficulty arises when comparing different studies using phytoadditives due to the large variation in composition and sourcing, thus the potential biological effects of phytogenic compounds may differ. However, a great amount of research data supports a potential role of phytoadditives as natural, non-antibiotic growth promoters in broiler nutrition. The mechanisms behind growth promotion are far from being elucidated, as data on phytoadditive effects on nutrient digestibility, gut function and the immune system are still scarce. Phytogenic intake may certainly depress pathogen growth in the gut, however an understanding of their effects on the complex gut ecosystem is still far from clear. There is insufficient amount of studies describing the effects of phytoadditive dietary intake on carcass meat safety, whereas the beneficial effect of phytogenics on carcass meat quality is very well documented. As the last point of this review, further considerations on the efficient applications of phytoadditive compounds in broiler nutrition are given.