Elanco Animal Health expert offers broiler advice

Poor gut health is causing broiler chickens to achieve less from their feed and cost farmers money, an expert has warned.

Barrie Fleming, a qualified vet and the senior veterinary adviser at Elanco Animal Health, made his comments to the Farmers Weekly.

He suggested that as feed prices continue to be high, now could be a good time to address chickens’ gut health to ensure they are able to fully digest what they are given.

“A bacterial overgrowth (known as dysbacteriosis) may lead to diarrhoea and damage to the intestine, ultimately leading to diseased birds and poor performance,” Mr Fleming explained.

He called upon farmers to be aware of the possibility of gut ill-health and look at environment, feed quality and other ways of addressing the condition in order to get the most out of their birds.

Elanco Animal Health is a division of Eli Lilly, which recently reported fourth quarter sales of $5.19 billion (£2.6 billion).