Commercial Poultry Production and Hatchery Management

NUTRIENTS

• Nutrients are essential substances present in different types of foods which perform various life-sustaining functions in the body.
• They are required for growth, maintenance and thereby productive process and a deficiency of nutrients in the feed below the required level results in the development of diseases referred to as “deficiency diseases”.
• Poultry require more than 40 such nutrients, which are classified into six major groups based on their chemical nature, their functions or role, and the method in which they are determined. The groups of nutrients are:
  • Proteins
  • Carbohydrates
  • Fats
  • Vitamins
  • Minerals
  • Water
• These groups of nutrients are present both in the poultry feed and in the bodies of the fowls.
• However, they are not directly transferred from the feed to the tissues, but are split in the bird’s body during digestion, absorption and the metabolism process.
• The various functions performed by each nutrient and the requirement needed by poultry vary from nutrient to nutrient.