A Healthy Gut is a Healthy Animal
Gut health affects every aspect of animal health and performance. The gut serves as a key line of defense from the outside world and maintaining a good barrier can assist producers in avoiding several issues.
Gut health remains one of the most crucial concerns in the animal production industry. Intestinal challenges are a common cause of production losses especially in young animals. Damage to the intestinal barrier caused by pathogens reduces health and absorption of nutrients. It is well known that antibiotics inhibit growth of certain pathogenic microorganisms and can be used to boost animal's performance. However, the demand for antibiotic-free chicken and pork creates a need for holistic approaches to sustain intestinal health and maintain animal performance.
In spite of reduction in antibiotic use, there are strategies that can be used to lower the intestinal challenges and maintain or even improve growth performance. This Novus webinar series featured experts in the area of gut health and antibiotic reduction.