Physical and chemical pellet quality in poultry industry

The commercial poultry industry has been pelleting poultry diets in feed mills for years and pelleting is the most popular thermal processing technique in the poultry industry. The process of pelleting is widely used because of both the physical and the nutritional benefits it provides. Due to the heat, moisture and mechanical pressure applied during conditioning and pelleting, some chemical and physical alterations occur that may have beneficial or detrimental effects on feed components, gastrointestinal development and subsequent bird performance. Its proven benefits include improved palatability and hygienic condition of feed, increased feed bulk density and flow ability, elimination of segregation problems and improved transportation efficiency. Pelleting also affects the metabolic and digestion characteristics of feeds. Offering feed to poultry in pellet form enhances the economics of production by increasing the feed intake (FI), and thus growth performance and feed efficiency. Then, the purpose of present review was to describe some factors that affect physical and chemical pellet quality and the effects of pelleting diet on some performance characteristics in poultry feed.