Antibiotics have been commonly used as growth enhancers to promote
performance and feed efficiency in poultry production. It is essential to find new and
safe alternative compounds to antibiotics due to their numerous harmful effects, such as
antibiotic resistance, destruction of the gastrointestinal microbiota community, and
dysbacteriosis. Improving poultry production using probiotics as feed additives is one
of the decent alternative options to antibiotics. Probiotics are described as “living
microorganisms that confer a benefit on the host health when applied in adequate
quantities”. Probiotics as feed additives help in feed digestion by creating the nutrients
in an available form to grow faster. Also, poultry diets supplemented with probiotics
improve immunity status. Besides, fortified poultry diets with probiotics enhance meat
characterization and egg quality traits. Additionally, the use of probiotics in poultry
feed could prevent various infectious diseases. Thus, obtaining optimum results
requires a good selection of probiotic strains. This chapter focuses on the probiotics’
mode of action and their relevance in poultry diet supplementation to improve
production and preserve poultry health.
Keywords: Health, Mechanisms, Performance, Poultry, Probiotics.