PRO- AND POSTBIOTICS IN BROILER FEED - The matrix reassessed

Summary

Probiotics (beneficial live micro-organisms), and more recently postbiotics (dead beneficial micro-organisms and/or compounds produced during their growth), have received increasing interest by feed producers to improve the growth and health of broiler chickens. The thesis describes research to determine the effects of the heat process to produce a postbiotic from a probiotic on the composition and the way both affect the growth and physiology of broilers.

For the first time, it has been shown in broilers that diet composition can influence the way pro- and postbiotic additives work, that challenging growth conditions are required for these additives to be beneficial, and that pro- and postbiotic carriers (= mixture used to carry an additive as a dry powder) composition can affect their physiological effects. I also reported that a lower intestinal inflammation was associated with greater weight gain in broilers. This indicates that lowering intestinal inflammation may allow for improvements in growth and health in broiler production. Interestingly, this was observed for the probiotic studied in the thesis.