Practical Aspects of Early Nutrition for Poultry

There is considerable interest in precision feeding of young poultry from the perspective of minimizing early mortality and getting the flock off to a uniform start. A wide range of factors can influence the responses of the hatchling to early nutrition independent of formulated dietary nutrient concentrations. These can include the age of the parent breeders, which can affect uniformity of egg size and hatch time, ingredient availability, and poultry management practices (e.g. temperature, litter conditions). From a system development standpoint, the intestine goes through a period of extensive development immediately before hatching and during the first days past-hatch. This observation may warrant some novel nutritional approaches as we feed a hatchling that is not yet capable of completely digesting the array of “normal” ingredients that make up typical starter diets. The objective of this report is to discuss the physiologic condition of the hatchling and some nutritional approaches that might enhance overall thriftiness during the earliest stages of growth.