The application of zeolite in poultry production

Zeolites are crystalline, hydrated aluminosilicates of alkali and alkaline earth cations which have infinite, three dimensional structure. Among many properties attributed to zeolites, two most characteristics that relates to their effectiveness in animal nutrition are their ability to lose and gain water reversibly and being capable of exchanging selectively a variety of cations in their structure without much major changes of structure. However the effect of zeolites on food intake, weight gain, growth rate, egg production, egg weight, shell thickness and internal egg characteristic are in dispute. While some of the experiments report beneficial effect due to inclusion of zeolite in the diet of birds, others show no changes and yet there are results that indicate the negative effects. Reasons such as level of usage, type of zeolite (natural vs. synthetics) and even within natural ones, the levels of impurities, are to be blamed for discrepancies reported from the experiments. On the other hand there has been evidence that zeolites has beneficial effect on feed efficiency ratio, water consumption, nutrient utilization, manure and litter condition and more importantly on aflatoxicosis.