The Potential of Tropical Agro‐Industrial by‐Products as a Functional Feed for Poultry

Following the ban of synthetic antibiotics as antimicrobial agents and growth promoters, poultry nutrition-ists are now trying to find antibiotic substitutes. Agro-industrial by-products are abundant in tropical coun-tries and have been used as the alternatives to conventional feedstuffs in poultry rations. These by-products are also known to contain several bioactive compounds such as oligosaccharides, phenolic compounds, certain fatty acids, vitamins, etc. The compounds may serve as antimicrobial agents, antioxidants and im-mune-modulators for poultry. Owing to this, agro-industrial by-products have a potential to become func-tional feeds that can promote the health and well-being of poultry. The potentials of some tropical agro-industrial by-products (e.g., palm kernel meal, rice bran, cassava meal, copra meal, banana peel meal, or-ange peels and pulp) and their derivative products as functional feeds for poultry are elaborated in the pre-sent review, and the possible mechanisms through which agro-industrial by-products may improve the health status of poultry will also be discussed. Future studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of agro-industrial residues and their derivative products in substituting the use of synthetic antibiotics in poultry rations.