In humans as in chickens, certain bacteria such as Lacto­bacilli and Bifidobacteria are absolutely essential for intestinal development. These microbes are normally taken up from the environment. The most important factors for microbe uptake by chickens are the hatcher­ies, the henhouses, and the feed and water taken up.

The increasing efforts in the field of production hygiene are re­stricting the pathways to uptake of important bacteria ever furth­er. Hatcheries are almost sterile, henhouses are disinfected be­fore the chicks are installed, and the feed is being treated ever more in order to avoid patho­genic germs as far as possible. However, parallel with this the microbes necessary for develop­ment of the birds are being in­creasingly killed off. This now leads to a situation in which poultry is restricted in its growth potential as certain stimuli nec­essary for development can no longer be provided. This can be observed in particular among parents for broilers, as contrary to their genetics these animals are fed restrictively in order to increase their fertility. All this is done with very high hygiene measures, which leads to a par­ticularly difficult situation re­garding the development status of the fowl. Non-specific clinical pictures among the parents are frequent, and in many cases then also lead to losses in the rearing of the parents.

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