All poultry birds whether they are broiler, layers or breeders need to receive all kinds of nutrients in their feed to maintain health and production for a profitable poultry farming. A wide variety of feed ingredients are available for the poultry and the nutrient requirement to them are well understood. Feed for poultry generally consists of cereal grains like corn, wheat, barley, etc. The feed includes trace minerals, vitamins, microminerals such as calcium, iron, potassium that are responsible for improving their nutritiousness and health. The quality of the feed and the nutritional value also depends on many factors including feed presentation, microbial contamination, the content of antinutritional factors, digestibility and gut or intestinal healthfulness. For this, there are a variety of poultry feed supplement and additives are available to deal with these issues.
The use of poultry feed additive or supplement along with the poultry feed is to improve the efficiency of the poultry bird's growth, its egg-laying capacity, prevention from diseases and improving the feed utilization. Common poultry feed supplements used in poultry feed are growth promoter, iron tonic, calcium tonic, liver tonic and in feed additives include antimicrobials, antioxidants, emulsifiers, toxin binder, and poultry feed enzyme The main aim of using these supplement or additives is to enhance their value for human consumption, but the main is to accomplish this by using natural ingredients that contains significant levels of nutrients that can be deposited directly into the meat and eggs of poultry.