ISSUE FOCUS 24 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE January 2024 ulatory and performance benefits in broilers. Four independent trials were conducted comparing broiler birds fed on a basal diet with birds fed the blend of postbiotic and essential oil blend on top of the basal diet. The results from the four studies showed that birds fed with the new solution containing postbiotics and essential oils showed significantly higher body weight and feed conversion ratio compared to control birds. Moreover, there was a significantly higher abundance of butyrate producing bacteria, and reduction of opportunistic harmful bacteria such as Clostridium perfringens at 21 and 35d. In fact, the postbiotics could promote butyric acid producing bacteria directly or through cross-feeding mechanisms, while the essential oil compounds could control harmful bacterial, resulting in higher growth of butyric acid producing bacteria. Overall, the synergistic action of postbiotics and essential oil compounds could accelerate the development of a balanced and resilient mature microbiota in birds leading to improved performance. CONCLUSION The use of advanced tools and technology is imperative to understand the changing in patterns of the complex poultry gut microbiome. Connecting these gut microbiome changes with animal health, performance, and preharvest food safety can help to implement appropriate interventions strategies with changes in raw materials, nutrients levels, inclusion of additives, etc., in the diet to attain the specific production targets in a more sustainable way. About Vivek Kuttappan Vivek Kuttappan, Ph.D., is a Poultry Technology Lead at Cargill, Inc. that supports the animal agriculture industry through unparalleled research capabilities, innovative feed and premix products and services, and digital modeling and formulation solutions. Throughout his career, Dr. Kuttappan has provided valuable contributions to the poultry industry in two specific areas:1) broiler meat quality, reducing poultry carcass quality defects such as myopathies, and 2) poultry gut health, improving gut health in broilers, thereby reducing economic losses to poultry producers. Dr. Kuttappan holds a patent for a novel molecule to improve gut health in broilers and has participated in approximately 100 scientific publications, including 40 peer-reviewed journal articles cited by researchers worldwide. He has received several awards for his research, including the prestigious PSA Early Achievement Award for Industry. As a subject expert in solving poultry meat quality challenges, he has served as an invited speaker in the industry as well as in academia. Dr. Kuttappan continues to collaborate with academia to solve gut health threats in antibiotic-free production as a research partner in various projects investigating non-antibiotic feed additive strategies to mitigate health challenges and improve poultry production performance. He has been an active member of the Poultry Science Association since 2009 and currently serves as the Chair of the PSA Committee on Industry Relations to propose how the Poultry Science Association can support, fund, or create projects, plans, and actions to fulfill potential needs and initiatives within the sector of industry relations. He is also an editorial board member and reviewer for several scientific journals. Dr. Kuttappan received his doctorate in poultry science from the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, and a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in veterinary science from Kerala Agricultural University, India.
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