Effects of dietary probiotic supplementation on growth performance and intestinal morphology in broiler chickens

Emily Carter; Daniel Hughes; Rachel Morgan

Articles Published March 15, 2026 Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026)

Effects of dietary probiotic supplementation on growth performance and intestinal morphology in broiler chickens

Authors

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Affiliation

¹ Department of Animal Science, Northfield University
² Institute of Poultry Research, Eastbrook College

Abstract

Background: Probiotics are increasingly used as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters in poultry production.

Methods: A total of 480 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg of a Bacillus subtilis probiotic) with six replicate pens each for 42 days.

Results: Supplementation at 1.0 g/kg improved body weight gain by 6.8% and the feed conversion ratio by 5.1% compared with the control (P < 0.05). Villus height and villus-to-crypt ratio in the jejunum increased linearly with the dose.

Conclusions: Dietary B. subtilis at 1.0 g/kg is an effective strategy to support growth and intestinal integrity in broilers.

Keywords

References

Percie du Sert N, Hurst V, Ahluwalia A, Alam S, Avey MT, Baker M, et al. The ARRIVE guidelines 2.0: updated guidelines for reporting animal research. PLoS Biol. 2020;18(7):e3000410. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000410 Google Scholar Crossref
Festing MFW, Altman DG. Guidelines for the design and statistical analysis of experiments using laboratory animals. ILAR J. 2002;43(4):244–258. https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar.43.4.244 Google Scholar Crossref
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007;39(2):175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146 Google Scholar Crossref
Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw. 2015;67(1):1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01 Google Scholar Crossref
Schneider CA, Rasband WS, Eliceiri KW. NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nat Methods. 2012;9(7):671–675. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2089 Google Scholar Crossref
R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2025. https://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar Crossref

About the authors

Emily Carter

Department of Animal Science, Northfield University

Emily Carter is an assistant professor of poultry nutrition whose work focuses on feed additives and gut health.

License

CC BY 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[ref-1] Percie du Sert N, Hurst V, Ahluwalia A, Alam S, Avey MT, Baker M, et al. The ARRIVE guidelines 2.0: updated guidelines for reporting animal research. PLoS Biol. 2020;18(7):e3000410. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000410 Google Scholar Crossref

[ref-2] Festing MFW, Altman DG. Guidelines for the design and statistical analysis of experiments using laboratory animals. ILAR J. 2002;43(4):244–258. https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar.43.4.244 Google Scholar Crossref

[ref-3] Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007;39(2):175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146 Google Scholar Crossref

[ref-4] Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw. 2015;67(1):1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01 Google Scholar Crossref

[ref-5] Schneider CA, Rasband WS, Eliceiri KW. NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nat Methods. 2012;9(7):671–675. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2089 Google Scholar Crossref

[ref-6] R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2025. https://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar Crossref