Editorial: Integrated approaches to understanding and improving poultry health, immunity, and productivity: unraveling the role of metabolism

Integrated approaches to understanding and improving poultry health, immunity, and productivity: unraveling the role of metabolismThe needs of modern poultry production extend beyond the traditional objectives of maximizing growth rate and feed efficiency, requiring an understanding of the complex and dynamic interplay among biological systems that collectively determine productivity and resilience in poultry.Central to this is nutrient metabolism, which governs the transformation of dietary substrates into the biochemical intermediates required for cellular processes, physiological regulation, and systemic homeostasis.The Research Topic "Integrated Approaches to Understanding and Improving Poultry Health, Immunity, and Productivity: Unraveling the Role of Metabolism" brings together novel contributions that aim to enhance nutrient utilization, modulate gut microbiota, improve metabolic resilience, and support immune competence.The gut-liver axis consists of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), GIT microbiota, and liver, encompassing hepatocytes and Kupffer cells (reviewed: Albillos et al., 2020;Tilg et al., 2022;Pabst et al., 2023).These are linked via the hepatic portal blood vessels with "bidirectional crosstalk" (reviewed: Tilg et al., 2022).Implicit to this axis are the intestinal barrier and Kupffer cells, the resident macrophages in the liver sinusoids (reviewed: Albillos et al.,