Gut health in poultry affects nutrient absorption, immune function, and behavioural welfare. Optimising gut health through nutrition and management is an important and sometimes overlooked welfare lever.
Gut health in poultry is a welfare issue as well as a production challenge. Birds with compromised gut health absorb nutrients poorly, are more susceptible to systemic disease, and may experience gastrointestinal discomfort that affects behaviour and activity. Necrotic enteritis causes tissue death in the intestinal lining — a painful condition that reduces welfare and can progress to mortality. Since the removal of antibiotic growth promoters in Europe, the industry has invested significantly in nutritional and management approaches to maintain gut health without prophylactic antibiotics. These include probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, and improved litter management. Gut health optimisation that reduces disease incidence and severity simultaneously improves animal welfare and reduces antibiotic use — making it a high-impact area of farm welfare management.