Abstract
Maintaining a healthy gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is critical for better nutrient utilization, optimum performance, and overall health of poultry. Thus, several nutritional strategies have been tried to improve poultry’s gut health. More recently, different nutrients and feed additives are being used in poultry diets with some success when antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) are not an acceptable option anymore. However, effective modulation of gut health depends on the methods and timing of the compound being available to host animals. Routinely, the alternatives to AGP like prebiotics, probiotics, symbiotic, enzymes, and other nutrients are provided in feed or water to poultry. However, the GIT of the newly hatched poultry is functionally immature, despite going through significant morphological, cellular, and molecular changes toward the end of incubation. Thus, the early growth and development of GIT are of critical importance to enhance nutrients utilization and optimize the growth performance of poultry. Maternal nutrition and in ovo feeding have been used and found to be effective in improving gut health but with inconsistent results. The effects of maternal nutrition on the development and viability of embryo and post-hatch growth performance of birds are documented. However, there is limited information on how maternal nutrition affects the gut health of chicks. In contrast, information on the same from in ovo feeding of nutrients and feed additives has increased in recent years. The results show that in ovo feeding can be a good tool to modulate gut health of post-hatch birds positively. However, more information is needed on the proper route and time of inoculation, optimum doses, and effective combination of different compounds to maximize the benefits of in ovo feeding technique in poultry production.