Non Technical Summary
In order to improve the sustainability and viability of non-conventional poultry production, new methods are needed to reduce the environmental impacts of antibiotic free systems and improve the profitability for animal producers. One potential opportunity to increase survivability and increase feed-use efficiency is to incorporate specific secondary plant metabolites into poultry diets. These plant secondary metabolites have shown to promote gut health which in turn increases feed efficiency and decreases mortality. We have identified specific sorghum bicolor hybrids that have increased plant secondary metabolites and have the potential to improve the profitability and sustainability of non-conventional poultry production. Our goal is to demonstrate that these plant secondary metabolites can provide these benefits at scales to producers across the United States.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
315	1520	1010	100%

Knowledge Area
315 - Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection;

Subject Of Investigation
1520 - Grain sorghum;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Goals / Objectives
Our overall goal is to increase the efficiency and profitability of non-conventional poultry production. We plan to identify causative secondary plant metabolites from Sorghum bicolor that increases the survivability and feed efficiency of non-conventional poultry production systems (i.e. antibiotic free, raised without antibiotics, organic, etc). In this project, we will not only show the efficacy of these secondary plant metabolites, but we will also confer minimum levels of product efficacy to determine economic feasibility. We will determine minimum product viability and economic feasibility by conducting a feeding trial in broiler chickens with various levels of plant secondary metabolites in the diet.

Project Methods
We will conduct a multi-step challenge study with various levels of high-metabolite sorghum in the diets. In addition to calculating traditional analysis, we will also conduct lesion scoring and quantitative PCR to determine levels of infection from the two pathogens:Eimeria maximaandClostridium perfringens.