Abstract
Health of the intestine is one of the main reasons that affects the bird’s performance, and thus the economic yield in the poultry sector. Various studies have examined how to improve the intestinal health using dietary supplements, including organic acids such as sodium butyrate (SB). The efficacy of the dietary supplementation in poultry is often assessed using an important parameter such as intestinal integrity, which is often assessed as a measure of high villus height and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth, or count of goblet cell numbers. In broilers, the villus length and width were increased by the addition of dietary SB. Since, at day 21 and 42, the villus length was increased by 55 and 27%, and 39 and 18% for birds fed 0.5 and 1 g/kg, respectively, compared with the control diet. Furthermore, SB plays an important role in development of poultry intestinal epithelium. It can be employed by the intestinal epithelial cells as an energy source to stimulate their differentiation and proliferation, and to improve intestinal barrier function. SB is effective against acid intolerant species such as Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens and E. coli. In addition, use of butyric acid at 0.6% reduced the pH of gastrointestinal segments. For this, SB could be a potential alternative in maintaining the health of gastrointestinal tract and improving the productive performance of poultry. This review refers to the expanding horizons in the research on SB supplementation in poultry health and nutrition.