Dietary butyrate supplementation has however an inconsistent effect on the growth performance of broilers, with factors such as inclusion level, health status, age of the bird or diet composition being influential for the observed effects on growth performance (Cerisuelo et al., 2014; Polycarpo et al., 2017). Several mechanisms underlying the observed effects of butyrate on growth of livestock have been hypothesised (For review, see Guilloteau et al., 2010). At present, a limited number of studies have investigated the existence of such mechanisms in poultry (Zhang et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2017). In addition, most of the poultry studies resorted to only one butyrate additive and did not report butyrate concentrations along the GIT (e.g. Czerwinski et al., 2012; Cerisuelo et al., 2014). Hence, it remains uncertain whether the effects elicited by butyrate are conditioned by the GIT segment wherein the molecule is present. This dearth of knowledge could limit the full use of butyrate supplements as a nutritional strategy to meet the challenges of the poultry industry. Bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects Butyrate presence in the gastrointestinal tract Intracellular effects Sensing by enteroendocrine cells Increased gut integrity and prevention of inflammation Changes in passage rate, gut morphology and enzymatic secretions Changes in nutrient digestibility Shifts in microbiota composition Changes in immune responses Change in growth performance Figure 1. Putative modes of action of butyrate resulting in changes in the growth performance of broiler chickens Literature review