---
title: On farm gut health monitoring – an essential tool!
description: It is estimated that gut health issues (enteritis) are responsible for around 50% to 70% of antibiotic use in most poultry veterinary practices in Europe. 
image: https://info.kemin.com/hubfs/medium%20%282%29.jpg
---

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# On farm gut health monitoring – an essential tool!

Published on **12-05-2020** - Written by **Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health**

- [Poultry](https://info.kemin.com/veterinary-nutritionals/blog/tag/poultry)
- [Management](https://info.kemin.com/veterinary-nutritionals/blog/tag/management)

## Wet Litter

In general, it is estimated that gut health issues (enteritis) are responsible for around 50% to 70% of antibiotic use in most poultry veterinary practices in Europe.

First sign of gut health problems is [wet litter](https://info.kemin.com/blog/wet-litter), but causative agents can be multiple,  not necessarily a bacterial problem as primary cause. Very often when wet litter occurs, antibiotic treatment is started without proper diagnosis or laboratory analyses.

> An important tool to reduce antibiotic use is to improve and standardize diagnostics through a gut health monitoring system and to set thresholds when to start an intervention.

Clinical and pathological findings will result in correct diagnosis, allowing correct treatment (short-term) and implementation of a long-term preventive strategy avoiding antibiotic use. As it concerns a long-term strategy, supplements improving intestinal health can be used in preventative dosages. On a short term, when treatment is needed to solve an acute issue, dosage of the supplementation can be increased temporarily to a treatment dosage. It is clear that in the context of moving away from a treatment approach (with antibiotics) to a preventative approach, gut health monitoring on farm will become even more important. 

> Practical guidelines to perform a correct gut health monitoring on farm include: 
> 
> - Necropsy at least 5 birds per house
> - Perform the monitoring immediately after euthanasia, not on already dead birds
> - Enough light, daylight is preferable

Below tutorial shows how to perform a correct gut health monitoring.

 

We also created a gut health monitoring form. You can download it here: 

[![Download your guide towards optimal intestinal health here](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/257852/a6803f9c-f880-4854-ab41-5664b1d694e1.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/257852/a6803f9c-f880-4854-ab41-5664b1d694e1)

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