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INTRODUCTION
In the past 2 decades, the global poultry industry has faced dramatic changes in the feeding strategies, primarily due to the reduction of in-feed antibiotic (including ionophores) usage.
However, the need to maintain intestinal health and improve broiler performance has not changed, and in the absence of antibiotics, that need is actually greater.
In this non-antibiotic era, intestinal health disorders are ranked as the major challenges to the poultry industry worldwide.
Coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis (bacterial enteritis) have become the prominent diseases affecting broiler productivity and economic return (estimated USD 20 billion in yearly losses).
As a result, many specialists are anxious to learn of new non-antibiotic feed additives that may reduce the challenges produced by Eimeria spp. and Clostridium perfringens and improve poultry growth performance as well.
Among many natural strategies that have been studied and then applied commercially, saponins are gaining traction throughout the livestock and poultry industries.
SAPONINS
Saponins are natural compounds found in a large variety of plants that have been shown to produce a wide variety of biological effects.
Quillaja saponaria, the Chilean soap bark tree, and Yucca schidigera, a plant of the arid regions of the American southwest, have become major sources of commercially used saponins.
There are several benefits of Quillaja and Yucca saponins in animal feeding:
Ammonia reduction.
Antiprotozoal and antimicrobial activity.
Stimulation of the immune response.
Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.
Enhanced nutrient digestibility.
Image 1. Quillaja-saponaria-flower
Saponins have been widely used in US since 2000’s, and in the last 10 years it has been estimated that about 25% of American broilers receive a saponin based product in feed (>2.5 billion broilers per year). In Brazil saponins are approved as natural growth promoters, and most recently, their use has been expanding in Europe and Asia.
KEY SAPONINS BENEFITS FOR POULTRY HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE
Immune responses
Quillaja saponins (QS) have been used in both human and animal vaccines as adjuvant to increase immunogenicity of an antigen, resulting in increased antibodies and cytotoxic of T-lymphocytes.
In turn, vaccine efficacy is improved. Recently QS was used as adjuvant in a Covid-19 and...
