Food intake regulation

Meeting the challenge of optimizing productive efficiency, product quality and animal health and well-being requires a thorough understanding of the mechanisms that regulate and coordinate feed intake and energy metabolism. The regulation of feed intake consists of several overlapping neural and endocrine pathways involved in negative and positive feedback mechanisms. This chapter focuses on the central and peripheral molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of feed intake in avian species. Although chickens have several similarities in their mechanisms of the regulation of feed intake, some peculiarities exist where some feeding-related peptides have different effects compared to that in mammalian species.