Effect of a Synbiotic Mix on Intestinal StructuralChanges, and Salmonella Typhimurium andClostridium Perfringens Colonization inBroiler Chickens

In Mexico, the poultry industry uses antibiotics to improve meatproduction through increased feed conversion, growth rate promotion, and disease prevention.Nevertheless, due to the negative effects of antibiotic overuse and abuse, alternative strategies arerequired. Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics are used as feed additives to maintain health andperformance status in poultry production and have become a common method in preventing variousgut diseases, but the mechanisms of how these mixtures promote animal health are still unclear.This work studies whether a Synbiotic, besides modulating the gut microbiota, can modify theintestinal mucosa ultrastructure, and if this modification can promote health conditions withoutaffecting zootechnical parameters in broilers infected with Salmonella Typhimurium and Clostridiumperfringens. Our results show that broilers treated with the Synbiotic, whether infected with pathogensor not, had healthier intestinal mucosa. The Synbiotic mix promotes structural changes in the intestinalmucosa, which in turn promotes the capacity to resist intestinal infections caused by S. Typhimuriumand C. perfringens in broilers.