The role of early feeding in improving performance and health of poultry: herbs and their derivatives

The key objective of poultry husbandry is to provide safe and nutritious food for the growing population. The technique of delivering various nutrients, nutraceuticals, vaccines, immunostimulants, phytochemicals and medicinal herbs via the in ovo route is gaining wide attention among scientists worldwide for improving poultry productivity, boosting immune response and safeguarding the health. Embryonic growth in poultry has been manipulated through direct administration of biological compounds into embryonated eggs during the mid and late phase of incubation. This shows potential to enhance hatchability, superior nutritional status, higher chick quality, improve post-hatch performance and ultimately reduce the challenges associated with infections and oxidative stress, as well as minimize the use of synthetic antibiotic growth promoters in poultry production. In the last two decades, several studies have demonstrated that the in ovo supplementation of herbs and their derivatives, such as chicoric acid, rosmarinic acid, astragalus polysaccharides boost immunity, upregulates antioxidant defense, and improves the health status and production output of poultry birds, making herbal compounds an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. In ovo injection of herbs and their phytochemicals has shown diverse advantages, including improvements in weight gain, feed efficiency, growth rate, decreased morbidity and mortality of embryos, boosted immunity, and improved health status of poultry birds. Furthermore, in ovo injection of herbal compounds has shown better protection against a number of infectious pathogens than post-hatch supplementation. The current review aimed to provide a promising insight for the promotion of in ovo technology in order to supply natural biological compounds/phytochemicals directly into the developing embryo to achieve an improvement in post-hatch growth, immune responses, antioxidant defense and highlights the future of in ovo technology as a strategy to minimize the use of AGPs and improve the health status and production performance of poultry.

Automated summary

The key objective of poultry husbandry is to provide safe and nutritious food for the growing population. The technique of delivering various nutrients, nutraceuticals, vaccines, immunostimulants, phytochemicals and medicinal herbs via the in ovo route is gaining wide attention among scientists worldwide for improving poultry productivity, boosting immune response and safeguarding the health.