Recent Trends in Gut Health Management

Good article. This is a fact that balance of gut microflora depends upon various factors, among them ingredients of the diet, environmental temperature, processing of feed, condition/kind of litter, etc. For a bird to keep a good balance of microflora is not a simple process and if this balance is disturbed then procedure to restore to normal condition is also not that easy. In humans, way of treatment is different as a human can tell his feeling after a medication and doctor can change the treatment immediately. But for animals/birds, mode of action of treatment depends upon lab reports, postmortem report, observation of farm manager and once treatment is started then it is always too late to change the treatment without causing much damage, therefore, in animal world, as a veterinarian, we have to be very sure to start a treatment. We always like to depend on trusted and tested methods. Therefore, antibiotics are, most of the time, first line of treatment in case of a disease outbreak. However, for prevention, methods may differ and sometimes persons do try other methods and non antibiotic approach. In many European countries, there is a ban on use of antibiotics growth promoters, therefore, it is compulsory for scientists to find alternatives ways. Then concepts like phytogenics, nutricines, etc emerge but all the alternate methods has a limited success, rather their long time use creating more problems than prevention. Therapeutic use of antibiotics, now is almost double than before the ban of AGPs. I believe, use of antibiotics to control harmful gut microflora and to create that favorable environment in gut are the best in all conditions but the success of other methods depends on many other factors discussed above.

That's good...

Excelent article.