In this article, Dr Gino Lorenzoni, Technical Director at Anitox, discusses the various factors which can compromise an animal’s ability to effectively process feed. These include: feed as a cause of enteritis, a condition prevalent among farmed animals; the lack of guidance on ‘safe’ limits for bacterial contamination in feed; variation of bacterial contamination within different batches of feed; and the possible effect of all these factors on how profitable an animal production operation will be.