Impact of Prebiotics on Poultry Production and Food Safety

With the phasing out of routine use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, interest has grown for the need to develop feed supplements that augment commercial poultry performance and provide food safety benefits. From a food safety perspective, alternative feed supplements can be broadly categorized as either agents which reduce or eliminate already colonized foodborne pathogens or prevent colonization of incoming pathogens. Prebiotics are considered preventative agents since they select for gastrointestinal microbiota which not only benefits the host but can serve as a barrier to pathogen colonization. In poultry, prebiotics can elicit both indirect effects on the bird by shifting the composition and fermentation patterns of the gastrointestinal microbiota or directly by influencing host systems such as immune responses. Generation of short chain fatty acids is believed to be a primary inhibitory mechanism against pathogens when prebiotics are fermented by gastrointestinal bacteria, but other mechanisms such as interference with attachment can occur as well. While most of the impact of the prebiotic is believed to occur in the lower parts of the bird gastrointestinal tract, particularly the ceca, it is possible that some microbial hydrolysis could occur in upper sections such as the crop. Development of next generation sequencing has increased the resolution of identifying gastrointestinal organisms that are involved in metabolism of prebiotics either directly or indirectly. Novel sources of non-digestible oligosaccharides such as cereal grain brans are being explored for potential use in poultry to limit Salmonella establishment. This review will cover the current applications and prospects for use of prebiotics in poultry to improve performance and limit pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract.