Stimbiotic supplementation and soluble fibre offer a powerful solution to modern poultry production challenges. Together, they enhance gut health, feed efficiency, and performance in broilers and layers, enabling reduced reliance on soybean meal. Backed by trials, this strategy supports sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and productivity, especially when paired with tools like near-infrared (NIR) technology for precision feed formulation.

Introduction

Like many sectors, the poultry industry is grappling with a volatile market, with rising costs and environmental pressures ranking as major concerns.

Adding to the complexity, sustainability has become a critical priority for the industry, with chicken production alone accounting for 8% of the livestock sector’s total emissions.

Given global chicken consumption has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, and continues to rise, it is clear producers need to act if they are to prioritize cost-effectiveness and sustainability. This is where alternative nutritional strategies can come into play.

Updating legacy diets

Soybean meal (SBM) has historically been the poultry industry’s go-to source of protein in diets, due to its high protein content, digestibility and price point. Today, however, SBM presents challenges in terms of sustainability and cost, hence, we see a growing focus on exploring alternative protein sources.

There are several important factors to consider when looking to replace SBM in feed and maintain animal productivity and performance. Beyond the amino acid profile, the inclusion of alternatives ingredients as a source of protein often brings more and different characteristics of fibre. Producers must then evaluate the fibre profile of alternative feed ingredients to understand their solubility and fermentability; this is key to informing the development of practical strategies to optimise digestion and broiler performance.

Popular alternative protein sources to SBM include sunflower meal (SFM) and rapeseed meal (RSM). However, if used alone these ingredients can be counterproductive; their high fibre content and anti-nutritional effects can impact digestibility, gut health and performance.

Adding a stimbiotic to the diet has been shown to mitigate these issues, unlocking much greater flexibility in the choice of feeding strategy and consequently supporting sustainability goals through reducing reliance on SBM.

Stimbiotics work by stimulating the growth of beneficial gut bacteria to improve fibre fermentation in the hindgut, leading to improved feed efficiency and overall performance.

Stimbiotics and soluble fibre: an effective double act

While fibre has traditionally been perceived as having a diluting or even antinutritional effect, interest in insoluble fibre has grown due to its benefits for digestive tract development and nutrient digestion.

Most recently, research suggests that a minimum level of soluble fibre should be included in feed formulations to optimise fermentation and achieve the best performance. For example, Morgan et al., 2022 found that supplementing layer diets with soluble fibre improves nutrient utilisation, performance and gastrointestinal health in hens. However, authors such as these have also cautioned that the effects may vary depending on the animal’s age (gut maturity) and whether stimbiotic supplementation is present.

In fact, recent research has also shown the beneficial effects of combining fibre and stimbiotic supplementation together in poultry feed. Trials have shown that this combination not only improves productivity, feed conversion ratio and average daily gain, but also enhances egg quality in laying hens.

Results that speak for themselves

Recent trials have demonstrated the benefits of incorporating stimbiotic supplementation and soluble fibre into poultry diets, for both laying hens and broilers. While soluble fibre influences the animal’s response, the ratio of soluble to insoluble fibre must also be considered when managing fibre in feed formulation

In a 20-week trial with 1,200 Bovans White laying hens, researchers evaluated the effects of different fibre profiles, adjusted through varying levels of cereal ingredients such as wheat, corn, and wheat bran, with or without stimbiotic supplementation, on egg production and quality. The results concluded that diets with higher soluble fibre content significantly improved feed conversion ratio per dozen eggs and overall production percentage.

Although higher soluble fibre reduced the Haugh unit value (measurement of the internal quality of an egg, based on the height of thick albumin surrounding yolk and the weight of eggshell), stimbiotic supplementation consistently improved egg quality across all diets, with notable effects on shell thickness, particularly in the control group.

In a separate trial spanning 35-days, broilers (1,024 Cobb 500 male birds) were examined on the impact of stimbiotic supplementation on productivity and hindgut fermentation. Broilers that were fed diets (RSM and SFM) supplemented with stimbiotic across different fibre profiles showed significant improvements in average daily gain and feed efficiency. Stimbiotic supplementation enhanced hindgut fermentation by increasing short-chain fatty acid production, that may have led to better nutrient absorption and overall performance.

These two trials show that optimising the ratio of soluble to insoluble fibre, combined with stimbiotic supplementation, can improve both egg quality in layers and growth performance in broilers. Additionally, enhanced fibre fermentation in the hindgut provides better energy utilisation, supporting the use of alternative, more sustainable feed ingredients while maintaining productivity.

Additional ingredients for success

To further optimise strategies, producers are leveraging advanced tools like near-infrared (NIR) technology that can take feed initiatives a step further, with the analysis of the fibre profile of feedstuffs quickly and easily providing a better understanding of feed fibre characteristics such as the ratio of soluble and insoluble fractions. For example, NIR technology can provide real-time values for total dietary fibre and non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) alongside ingredient analysis, assisting producers in making more informed decisions on feed formulation and quality control.

Final thoughts

The integration of a stimbiotic and soluble fibre into broiler and layer diets represents a viable nutritional strategy to meet the challenges of modern poultry production and produce more with less. This feed strategy can enable producers to move away from a full SBM-based diets and adopt cheaper, more local ingredients – supporting environmental goals whilst improving ROI.

As the poultry industry continues to evolve, adopting innovative, nutritional strategies like these will be critical for maintaining performance in a highly competitive market. By combining soluble fibre with stimbiotic supplementation, enhanced with NIR, producers can unlock new levels of efficiency and resilience, securing a brighter future for the industry.

About the author:

Dr Xavière Rousseau is Global Poultry technical manager in AB Vista. She joined the company 12 years ago after completed her PhD on dietary phosphorus optimisation in poultry and pigs with INRAE (France) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. During this time, she developed a strong expertise on animal physiology and on the interactions between calcium, phosphorus and phytase before joining AB Vista team. Since, she has developed her knowledge on feed additives and how-to bring their value to reach different production objectives. Her last area of interest is to look at the dietary fibre fraction and how to better characterize this substrate as looking at the tools to analyse them in order to define optimal solutions. Her focus is to continuously bring more knowledge regarding additives mode of action to provide optimal solutions and to extract best of their value to meet customer’s needs. She can be contacted at xaviere.rousseau@abvista.com

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