Supplying your flock with the highest quality poultry feed is a problem commonly encountered by farmers and poultry producers. Birds, much like humans, have distinct reactions to changes affecting their environment, interactions, and quality of life. Stress is a constant danger to the health of poultry. A flock of stressed chickens, turkeys, or ducks might sound kind of ridiculous at first, but in reality, the consequences of stress to poultry can be severe. The most extreme cases of poultry stress can lead to serious health problems and even death.
Common causes of poultry stress:
- Disease
- Poor nutrition
- Genetics
- Egg production
- Poor management
- Vaccination
- Overcrowding
- Temperature fluctuations
Using Nutrient-Rich Poultry Feed to Fight Stress
Flocks may experience one of the following five stresses:
- Physiological
- Nutritional
- Nervous
- Mental
- Climatic
While under stress, the bird’s body will begin to deplete its reserves of nutrients in an attempt to restore balance and maintain health. The result is a severely undernourished flock that becomes susceptible to weight loss, low egg production, immune suppression, loss of feathers, and many other conditions. As a result of these conditions, farmers will experience a sharp increase in feed conversion ratio.
The solution to overcoming stress is to supply the flock with poultry feed that is rich in nutrients, allowing birds to replenish their reserves, regain their health and reverse the effects of stress. One of the best ways to do this is with high-quality feed additives and supplements.
Managing Poultry Feed Nutrition
There are three main groups of nutritional supplements that can be added to poultry feed: proteins and amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. These groups can be broken down further to come up with the five most common types of poultry feed supplements:
- Electrolytes – Helps to maintain fluid balance in body tissues which prevents dehydration.
- Amino acids – Helps to lower dietary protein levels and supplements limiting amino acids, such as lysine. It’s also an effective heat stress alleviator.
- Vitamins – Boosts overall performance and immune functions and can include vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, and vitamin B-complex.
- Minerals – Poultry excrete exceptionally high levels of minerals while experiencing heat stress, requiring supplementation to restore normal functioning levels in the body.
- Probiotics and fermentation products – Hinders bacterial diseases by restoring the microbial balance in the gut and encouraging a diversity of microflora.
Using a healthy balance of poultry feed additives and supplements will ensure your flock can thrive and bring production levels back to optimal levels.
Using a Non-Medicated Solution to Enhance Production and Flock Value
Countering the effects of poultry stress with additives is best when the supplements are non-medicated. Exceptional supplements, such as Pollstress Dry, an anti-stress formula that help flocks to cope with, or eliminate stress while maintaining health.
Benefits of anti-stress supplements:
- Overcome stress due to a wide variety of conditions and factors, including heat, overcrowding, disease, transportation, vaccination, feed changes, and other stressful situations
- Promotes digestion and absorption of nutrients
- Improves feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio
- Accelerates the restoration of gut microflora following antibiotics or chemotherapy
Once your flock encounters stress they’ll begin manifesting symptoms that can be difficult to counter and reverse. Improving the nutritional quality of poultry feed by supplementing minerals, vitamins, and amino acids are essential to maintaining a healthy, valuable flock.
