Use of additives for avian feeding

Abstract

One of the factors that contributed for the high productivity presented by the avian industry was, without doubts, the use to additives in diets. The additive term includes all the substances which, when added to animal food, are capable to improve the animal performance or the physical characteristics of foods. The use of additives is, nowadays, reason of discussion due to the increasing public consumers’ pressure influenced by sensationalist press and demand for natural products. They suggest new regulations on animal feeding, as the prohibition of the use of subproducts of the same species and domestic leftovers and the obrigatoriness of the use of label with the origin of the components of the food. Therefore, the countries that accomplish this variety of requirements, and have competitive price, will have better conditions to produce and export foods in an efficient and competitive way. The Brazilian poultry raising is, without doubts, the animal production sector most modern and efficient of the country, and one of most competitive world-wide. Certainly the capacity of the nutritionists to use the huge variety of additives, collaborates for this scene. The use of additives like antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, simbiotics and exogenous enzymes, have being very emphasized in the animal feeding, because they can contribute to the improvement of the animal performance and even to make possible a higher use of alternative ingredients. In this revision general aspects of the use of these additives in the feeding of birds are discussed. Keywords: antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, simbiotics, enzymes.