Abstract

Synbiotics are made by combining prebiotics and probiotics to improve gut microbiology, digestibility, and performance of broilers. This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of synbiotic from trimmed asparagus by-products (TABP) combined with probiotic supplementation in broiler diets on the apparent nutrient digestibility, cecal microbiota, small intestinal morphology, and performance. Three hundred twenty-one days old, Ross 308® chicks; were raised under ambient temperature and assigned to a completely randomized design with four treatments and four replications per treatment (n = 20). The treatment consisted of a control diet based on a corn-soybean basal diet and a control diet supplemented with 10, 30, and 50 g/kg TABP combined with 2 g/kg probiotics. This study shows that TABP combined with probiotic supplementation significantly affected the apparent digestibility of dry matter, ether extract, crude fiber, and crude protein (p< 0.05). The supplementation of TABP combined with probiotics increased the lactic acid bacteria, Enterococcus sp., and volatile fatty acids (p < 0.05) and decreased Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli in the cecum of different treatment to control groups (p < 0.05). In addition, TABP combined with probiotics supplementation increased the villus height, villus surface area, and the depth of the crypt of Lieberkühn of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum (p < 0.01). Moreover, TABP combined with probiotic supplementation significantly affected the feed intake and average daily gain of broilers (p < 0.05). The data showed that minimum supplementation of synbiotics from TABP at 10 g/kg in combination with probiotics (2 g/kg) in diets has the potential to improve digestibility, gut ecology, and productivity of broilers.