[Metabolic insights and nutrition of poultry]

Excessive specialization and high production requirements place high demands on the metabolism of poultry. A number of metabolic problems, such as disturbances of energy metabolism (affecting mainly hens) and mineral balance (affecting mainly laying hens), affect performance. Nearly all these problems are multifactorial in nature, but diet, and in particular the interaction between diet and phenotype, plays an important role. The problem of ascites in broiler hens is discussed in relation to external and genetic causative factors. Genetic factors can be further subdivided into structural and functional causative factors. This distinction has important consequences. For example, sudden death syndrome can be distinguished as a separate entity. Fatty liver syndrome in laying hens, and gout and urolithiasis in chicks and hens are briefly discussed. Finally, some of the most important or most common skeletal problems affecting poultry, namely, tibial dyschondroplasia, battery fatigue, rickets, and chondrodystrophy, are briefly discussed in the context of the dietary factors that underlie these disorders or which can be used as treatment.