. Commercial
broilers are largely grown to somewhat fixed market
weights at ever decreasing ages, thus there is the recognition
that the first week(s) posthatch represents an increasing
proportion of the total growing period and thus
an important period relative to optimizing digestive efficiency
and performance (Willemsen et al., 2008). One
objective of this report is to discuss intestinal growth
and development with an emphasis on those factors effecting
early physiological function. This portion of the
paper was intentional in its inclusion of older literature
which laid the foundation for the more basic research
of the last 20 years. The term “intestinal health” has
become an increasingly popular term, primarily as it
refers to the increasing frequency of secondary bacterial
challenges and the onset of such pathologies as necrotic