CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Cost-effective poultry meat production is reliant on many vital factors. Securing optimum digestibility and assimilation of nutrients for improvement of broiler performance is certainly one of the most important elements. In this respect, the gastrointestinal tract needs special attention, because any impairment of the secretion of enzymes or disturbance of the microbiological equilibrium in the gut can negatively affect the digestibility of the feed, resulting in reduced growth rate or impaired feed conversion of growing birds. Various feed additive concepts, called eubiotics have been proposed to improve the nutrient utilization and to maintain gut health, which ultimately should result in improved performance (Wenk, 2002). Eubiotics as described by Broz and Paulus (2015) are groups of some feed additives (such as probiotics, prebiotics, essential oils e.t.c) which are used for the purpose of maintaining intestinal eubiosis (optimal balance of microflora in the gastrointestinal tract), thereby resulting in an improved health status and performance of farm animals. Prebiotics are non-digestible feed components that beneficially affect the host by selectively altering the composition and metabolism of the gut microbiota (Huyghebaert et al., 2011). Prebiotics may provide energy for the growth of favourable endogenous bacteria in the gut, such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, thus improving the host microbial balance (Das et al., 2012). Prebiotics are found naturally in a variety of foods and can also be synthesized enzymatically. Commonly used prebiotics are oligosaccharides i.e., fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), lactulose, inulin (Brijesh et al., 2013).
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