Importance of gastrointestinal in vitro models for the poultry industry and feed formulations

Abstract The animal’s diet is a crucial factor, as poultry feed formulations influences greatly their development, well-being and final products quality, i.e., meat and eggs. Therefore, the search for feed additives that provide concomitantly better performances, low-cost usage, guarantying the animal well-being and products safety, became a priority to the poultry industry. Although in an early stage, research has been focused on developing the optimal cost-efficient feed formulations, taking in account the chicken’s physiology and function of the gastrointestinal tract and intestinal microbiota. This review discusses a number of concepts and novel approaches towards the optimization of poultry´s feed formulations, by critically encompassing the animal’s growth and performance. Additionally, it highlights the in vitro gastrointestinal models capabilities as a potential solution to test highly nutritive, well-balanced and efficient feed formulations within a circular economy framework.