REVIEW article
Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition
The efficacy of feed additives in alleviating heat stress and supporting gut health in poultry
Provisionally accepted
- University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States
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Heat stress (HS) poses a critical challenge to modern poultry production, with increasing frequency and severity driven by global climate change. Heat stress impairs feed intake, nutrient absorption, growth, reproduction, immune competence, and welfare, resulting in substantial economic losses. The physiological consequences of HS include acid-base imbalance, endocrine and immune dysregulation, oxidative stress, altered gut integrity, and upregulation of heat shock proteins, which collectively compromise birds' performance and survivability. Over the years, antibiotics have been incorporated into poultry feed as growth-promoting agents to enhance performance and efficiency; however, they are increasingly criticized for antimicrobial resistance and residues in poultry products. To reduce antibiotic use, feed additives have emerged as promising nutritional strategies to mitigate HS-induced damage while serving as effective antibiotic alternatives. This review synthesizes current evidence on antibiotic growth promoters, mycotoxin binders, prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, exogenous enzymes, and phytochemicals, including essential oils, and their roles in enhancing thermotolerance, nutrient utilization, and overall health in heat-stressed poultry. These additives confer benefits by modulating gut microbiota, strengthening epithelial barriers, enhancing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity, stabilizing immune and endocrine responses, and improving skeletal and eggshell integrity under high ambient temperatures. Dietary feed additives offer sustainable, non-antibiotic approaches to support poultry resilience, productivity, and welfare under the pressures of HS and the broader challenges of a warming climate. Future research should focus on mechanistic pathways, optimal dosing, and synergistic additive combinations tailored to species, age, and production systems to maximize thermotolerance and production efficiency.
Keywords: Climate Change, Essential oil, feed additives, Growth, gut health, Heat stress, phytase, Poultry
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Olayiwola and Adedokun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sunday Adetayo Adedokun, tayo.adedokun@uky.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.