Impact of Long-Term Supplementation with Probiotics on Gut Microbiota and Growth Performance in Post-Weaned Piglets

This study aimed to investigate effects of long-term probiotic supplementation on gut microbiota and growth performance in health weaned piglets. The non-probiotic group (N-PrB) was fed only a basal diet, while the probiotic group (PrB) was fed a basal diet + probiotic combination ( . 1.6 × 10 CFU/g, 2.0 × 10 CFU/g, . 3.0 × 10 CFU/g). The probiotics combination was provided to the PrB, mixing with the basal diet in 5 kg/ton. As a result, the PrB exhibited significantly improved weight gain compared to the N-PrB ( = 0.00991). In the gut microbiome analysis, the PrB exhibited a significant increasing tendency of α-diversity compared to those of the N-PrB ( < 0.01). In the bacterial relative abundance changes in bacteria comprising the gut microbiota, ( = 0.00281) and ( = 0.00687) tended to significantly increase in the PrB, but decreased in the N-PrB. The group exhibited an increasing tendency in both groups, but tended to increase more significantly in the PrB compared to the N-PrB ( = 0.00681). tended to significantly increase in the N-PrB, but decreased in the PrB ( = 0.002779). In this study, significant differences on the gut microbiome were found according to the probiotics supplementation in the weaned piglets and these gut microbiome changes appeared to improve the growth performance.