Technical Bulletin
Dietary fibre The Forgotten Nutrient
In modern poultry nutrition, traditional fibre sources are associated with some negative attributes such as energy dilution of the diet and mycotoxin contamination and are usually not included not included during linear formulation. However, fibre is also suggested to have a positive effect on the intestinal microflora and the intestinal health including for poultry. While some nutritionists believe that crude fibre is an integral part of the poultry diet, others argue that its inclusion in poultry diets is not necessary.
Dietary fibre has been describwd as the skeletal remains of plant cells in diets that are not digested by monogastric animal. Fibre is anutritionally, chemically and physically heterogeneous material. This heterogeneous mix can be categorized into two major subclasses i.e., water soluble (viscous and fermentable fibre) and insoluble (no viscous and no fermentable sources). Differentiation of soluble and insoluble fibre components has helped elucidate the physiological effects of crude fibre as the two subclasses have different roles in the digestive/absorptive processes within the gastrointestinal tract