Poultry feed should be supplemented with copper in the form of copper sulfate or amino acid chelated copper. Copper is one of the essential micronutrient in poultry. It is distributed in many tissues and organs in the body. It participates in the activities of the body by forming many kinds of enzymes in the body. 

It plays an important role in the growth, development, immunity and hematopoiesis of poultry. The content of copper in natural feed materials of poultry, such as corn and soybean meal, is low, generally 7-15mg/kg, and it mainly exists in the bound state, and the utilization rate is not high. 

When there is a deficiency of copper in the feed, the poultry suffer from copper deficiency, which affects hematopoiesis, osteogenesis, Keratin, Collagen, Elastin and Myelin formation, a series of pathological changes, such as anemia, hair character change, demyelination, osteoporosis and so on, can also cause the pathological damage of the immune organs, reduce the immune function, increase the morbidity and mortality of poultry.

If the level of copper added to feed is too high, it can cause copper poisoning. Copper Salt has a strong stimulating effect, high copper can cause serious gastroenteritis. Copper is also a multi-affinity poison, after absorption can act on all systems of the body, damage to the nerves, liver, kidneys and blood. Poultry long-term intake of high copper feed, loss of appetite, coarse feathers, drooping wings, severe cases of paralysis, lying or limping, slow growth, diarrhea, and eventually wasting, failure and death. Long-term intake of high copper fowl liver, kidney, muscle copper residues significantly increased, consumption of this type of poultry products easy to lead to human copper poisoning. 

High copper feed will also increase the copper content in poultry feces, feces into the soil, the plant absorbed a large number of cattle and sheep after feeding high copper feed, it is appropriate to cause poisoning, poisoning serious death. 

Since it was found that high copper (150-250 mg/kg) feed can improve the growth performance of growing pigs, it is common for people to add high copper to poultry feed, especially meat and poultry feed, however, studies on the effects of high-copper diets on meat poultry are very inconsistent. 

Some studies showed that the growth performance of meat ducks fed diets with copper levels of 10,95,150 mg/kg did not change significantly, and some results even showed that compared with low copper (10 mg/kg) diets, the growth performance of meat ducks fed diets with copper levels of 10,95,150 mg/kg did not change significantly, and the growth performance of meat ducks fed diets with copper levels of 10,95,150 mg/kg did not change significantly, the diets containing 80 mg/kg copper had some inhibitory effects on the growth of meat ducks, but the results also showed that high copper (100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg) had some promoting effects on the growth of meat ducks. The application of copper in broiler feed is not consistent. Some studies have shown that high copper diets containing 110,220 and 330 mg/kg of copper can obviously promote the growth of broilers, and some studies have also shown that high copper diets containing 110,220 and 330 mg/kg of copper can significantly promote the growth of broilers, adding 100-300 mg/kg copper to broiler feed did not improve the performance of broilers.