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Abstract Antibiotics are widely used as growth promoters (AGPs) in livestock production to improve animal performance and health. However, pig producers today face the prohibition of in-feed antimicrobials and have to find safe and effective alternatives. Lactobacillus species are active microorganisms that convey multiple beneficial effects to the host and are one of the most promising AGPs replacements. Herein, we aimed to comprehensively assess the effects of Lactobacillus spp. (L. plantarum and L. acidophilus) supplementation on growth, nutrient absorption, gas emission, and gut microbiota diversity in weaning pigs. Weaning pigs (n = 160) were randomly allocated into four groups and allowed to be fed four different diets. The test treatments were basal diet (TRT1), basal + 0.25% antibiotic (TRT2), basal + 0.1% probiotics (TRT3), and basal + 0.2% probiotics (TRT4). Our results demonstrated that the inclusion of 0.2% Lactobacillus spp. supplementation significantly improved (P 0.05) the growth performance and blood lymphocytes and reduced (P 0.05) fecal ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emission. In microbiome analysis, Shannon index, Simpson index, and Bray-Curtis showed that probiotics enhanced (P 0.05) microbial richness and diversity, indicating a unique microbial profile induced by probiotic supplementation. In conclusion, our findings provide concrete evidence of the growth-promoting effects of Lactobacillus spp. supplementation in piglets and a better understanding of the potential of Lactobacillus-based probiotics as AGPs alternatives in pig production.
Lim et al. (Sun,) studied this question.