Physical forms of poultry feed

Abstract

The feed is one of the most important factors in animal production, either at cost or for animal response due to the quality of the feed. In poultry nutrition several strategies can be used to promote the improvement, or by changing formulation or even in the processing of feeds. The processes commonly used in the feed for the poultry industry are pelleting, extrusion or expansion in order to promote the different physical forms, namely, pelleted, extruded feeds, expanded, or simply expanded extruded unstructured. The advantages and disadvantages of processing can be listed in different levels of production, from the feed mill itself to the performance of the animals. The main difference between the processed and unprocessed feed is the improvement in digestibility caused by the gelatinization process that occur when the feed is subjected to elevated temperature, pressure at a particular time directly affecting the quality of feed. Thus, considering that feed processing burdening cost to the producer, however feed processed reduce the act of poultry in selecting larger particles, resulting in less wastage of feed and improved animal time use for food compared to mash feeds, we present a review of the physical forms of rations for birds as well as their advantages and disadvantages.