Abstract:
The global demand for poultry products is continuously growing, therefore the poultry industry
requires fast growth and high stocking densities to enhance production efficiency. These
conditions impact negatively on chicken health driving the indiscriminate use of antibiotic
growth promoters (AGPs), which has resulted in an increase in the outbreaks of zoonotic
diseases due to antibiotic resistance of poultry pathogens. This has led to restrictions on AGP
use in poultry production in many countries. This coupled with consumer preference for more
organic food, has created a need for the industry to explore alternative technologies for poultry
production. Probiotics can offer a solution to these challenges, as they have been proven to
reduce poultry pathogen infections, improve immune responses, aid in digestion of feed and
improve general health of chickens. However, due to the vast amounts of probiotics required
for poultry production, certain technological parameters need to be taken into consideration
regarding stability during feed processing and storage in industrial conditions. For this reason,
there has been increased interest in Bacillus based products because their endospore-forming
ability improves stability during processing, enables longer shelf life and better survival in the
chicken gut. This genus also elicits all of the probiotics effects of interest to the poultry
industry, making them the ideal target for research and development. This study therefore
focused on the development of a multi-strain poultry probiotic product, the associated
production processes and demonstration of the efficacy. This study is structured into five
chapters which are summarised as follows:
