SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fanim.2025.1679614
This article is part of the Research TopicBioactive-Enriched Foods: A Present, and Future Perspective on Sustainability and NutritionView all 5 articles
Formulation Strategies of Probiotics in Broilers: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Their Effects on Production Performance
Provisionally accepted
- University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
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In recent years, the broiler chicken industry has grown rapidly, suggesting that this sector plays a key role in ensuring global food security. However, to meet future needs, how chickens are raised must be improved, as probiotics are promising feed additives. This study examined scientific papers to determine how well different probiotics formulations work for broiler chickens. The study focused on two main aspects: body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The researchers reviewed 338 articles from the four databases. The most common probiotics were Bacillus, Lactobacillus, and a mixture of different genera types (Probiotic Mix). The results showed that these probiotic formulations had a significant positive effect on both BWG and FCR. The combined effect sizes for BWG were as follows: Lactobacillus (1.08); Probiotic Mix (0.96); and Bacillus (0.87). The effect sizes for FCR were as follows: Probiotic Mix (-1.32) Lactobacillus, (-1.22); and Bacillus (-1.04). Except for BWG in Bacillus category, there was considerable variation in the results. Researchers have also looked at factors such as probiotic dose (CFU/kg) and the number of strains in the Probiotic Mix, but these did not have a significant influence on heterogeneity. When converted combined effect sizes to metric units (g or kg), Lactobacillus showed the best results, with a 221.69 (g) increase in BWG and 0.17 (kg) decrease in FCR. Overall, this study supports the use of probiotics in poultry farming to improve efficiency and help with future food security.
Keywords: broilers, Probiotics, Meta-analysis, Body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, Lactobacillus, Bacillus
Received: 04 Aug 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Opazo, Salinas and Villasante. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rafael José Daniel Opazo, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
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