Uitkipping- en voedingsstrategieën om de prestaties van vleeskuikens en de homogeniteit van de toom te verbeteren door middel van darmgezondheid en microbiota

Broilers traditionally hatch in a commercial hatchery and have delayed access to first feed, which may negatively affect intestinal development, immune response and performance. Besides access-to-feed, there are multiple reasons (difference in gastrointestinal tract development, gut health and microbial colonisiation) why certain animals underperform compared to their genetic potential, decreasing flock uniformity, which is a key performance indicator and economic driver in commercial practice. We hypothesize that the determination of biological factors contributing towards variation in performance in the early life of birds will help to identify the prime cause behind the difference in body weight of low and high growers. Following this, different feed strategies and nutritional strategies and in ovo supplementation of pre- and/or probiotics will be investigated to influence the perinatal development of the digestive tract, the colonization of the microbiota, the maturation of the gastro-intestinal immune system, and growth performance of (underweight) broilers to minimize the flock heterogeneity.