Increasing productivity, improving the quality and environmental safety of poul-try products when using probiotic feed additives

The importance of probiotic feed additives in diets and programs for raising farm poultry, as well as the effectiveness of their use to improve the quality and safety of poultry products, has been analyzed. Existing standard compound feeds contain an insufficient amount of individual mineral and biologically active substances, as well as substances of a preventive nature that would support the body's immune system and have a preventive effect on the processes occurring in the gastrointestinal tract. The most important task at present is the creation and practical application of such feed mixtures that would be maximally absorbed by the body to ensure its vital functions, have preventive properties and contribute to the restoration of the macroorganism's own microflora. Probiotics actually form the intestinal microbiocenosis, produce biologically active substances and create unfavorable conditions for the development of pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic microflora, positively affect the digestibility of feed nutrients, improve metabolism and absorption of nutrients and reduce feed costs per unit of product. Therefore, today probiotic feed additives are positioned as a promising, safe alternative to antibiotics. Excessive uncontrolled use of antibiotics and the development of related problems, including antibiotic resistance, have prompted the world community to gradually completely abandon their use in animal and poultry feeding as growth stimulants. The prospect of using probiotics is a natural and effective alternative to traditional methods of poultry farming. In the final stage, the action of probiotics improves the overall functional state of the body, normalizes the functioning of various links of immune defense, optimizes physiological indicators, increases metabolism, increases productivity, and reduces feed costs. Probiotic feed additives have a significant impact on feed and water intake, feed efficiency and conversion, and egg weight. The obvious advantage of probiotics is that they are mono or mixed cultures of live microorganisms that benefit the health of the bird, improving welfare when administered in small quantities.