Efficiency of application of phytobiotics in poultry farming (review)

Currently, an urgent problem in the industrial poultry industry is the development of feed additives as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics. It has been established that natural feed additives of plant origin have a positive effect on the digestion and general health of birds. The predominant qualities of phytobiotic preparations are their naturalness, higher food assimilation by animal organism, low toxicity, and the absence of side effects. Besides, the advantage of phytobiotics is their relatively inexpensive cost, since in comparison with expensive synthetic analogues, the raw materials for their manufacture are more affordable. According to various characteristics, phytobiotics can be divided into four groups: herbs (flowering, non-woody and short-lived plants), spices (herbs with an intense smell or taste, usually added to human food), essential oils (volatile lipophilic compounds obtained by cold pressing, steam or alcohol distillation) and resins (gum, extracts obtained by the action of non-aqueous solvents). The purpose of this review was to study the composition, properties and the possibility of use of phytobiotic preparations in the technology of growing poultry based on the analysis of modern scientific publications of domestic and foreign authors. The article provides a far from complete review of studies on the composition, properties and effectiveness of the use of phytobiotics in egg and meat poultry farming, goose breeding, turkey farming and quail breeding, indicating their high demand in these sectors. In the conditions of industrial poultry rearing, phytobiotics contribute to an increase in the general organism resistance, normalization of the gastrointestinal microflora, and an increase in egg and meat productivity due to better digestibility of feed nutrients. However, it is worth mentioning that the number of herbal preparations is growing every year and a detailed study of their properties and the possibility of using them in the technology of growing agricultural poultry is necessary.