INTRODUCTION
Phytogenic feed additives are plant-derived products
used in animal feeding to improve the performance of
agricultural livestock. This class of feed additives has
recently gained increasing interest, especially for use in
swine and poultry, as can be derived from a significant
increase in the number of scientific publications since
2000. This appears to be strongly driven by the ban on
most of the antibiotic feed additives within the European
Union in 1999, a complete ban enforced in 2006,
and ongoing discussions to restrict their use outside
the European Union because of speculated risk for generating
antibiotic resistance in pathogenic microbiota.
In this context, phytogenic feed additives are discussed