An efficient digestion and nutrients absorption, coupled with good animal health status, are fundamental needs in the competitive animal protein industry. Poor absorption of nutrients cause economic losses, and are a source of imbalance in the microbial intestinal microflora, opening doors to diarrhea and other intestinal diseases, or even facilitating systemic problems of animal health. These problems become even more critical in the current scenario of increased risk with the progressive restriction of the use of antibiotic growth promoters around the world. Young animals, as piglets, are more susceptible to these problems due to the incomplete state of development of these animals, with less capacity and digestive enzymes, associated with an immature and less efficient immune system. The intestine of these animals is still in colonization process, so there is higher susceptibility to microflora imbalance and enteric problems. Several new technologies have been developed and implemented to address these challenges, such as Enzymes, Organic Acids, Probiotics and Lysophospholipids. A discussion will be presented showing how the supplementation of diets with these technologies have the potential to allow the formulation of lower nutrient density diets, generating less environmental pollution, and promoting better livestock performance and animal health. There are several evidences that point to a potentially synergistic activity of these technologies in the gastrointestinal tract increasing the digestibility of nutrients and promoting a positive balance of the resident intestinal microflora.
antibiotics; enzymes; lysophospholipids; organic acids; probiotics