Your browser does not support the NLM PubReader view.

Go to this page to see a list of supporting browsers.
Journal of Animal Science and Technology
Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology

J Anim Sci Technol

pISSN: 2672-0191, eISSN: 2055-0391

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5187/jast.2500456

Research Article

Nutritional strategies using synbiotics and organic acids to enhance piglet post-weaning growth and gut health

Su Hyup Lee1, Sunbong Choi2, Young Bin Park3, Hyun-Jun Jang2, Soyeon Park2, Yangseon Kim2, Jin-Ki Park1, Sung Ho Lee3,*, Dong Wook Kim1,**
1Department of Livestock, Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jeonju 54874, Korea.
2Department of Research and Development, Center for Industrialization of Agricultural and Livestock Microorganisms, Jeongeup 56212, Korea.
3Woogene B&G Co., Ltd., Hwaseong 18630, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Sung Ho Lee, Woogene B&G Co., Ltd., Hwaseong 18630, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: dasal235@gmail.com.
**Corresponding Author: Dong Wook Kim, Department of Livestock, Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jeonju 54874, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: poultry98@korea.kr.

© Copyright 2026 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Dec 24, 2025; Revised: Mar 13, 2026; Accepted: May 05, 2026

Published Online: May 27, 2026

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with probiotics (PRO), synbiotics (SYN), and SYN + benzoic acid (SYP) on growth performance, stress response, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, immune status, and intestinal health of weanling pigs. Four hundred weaned pigs (Landrace × Yorkshire × Duroc) were allocated to four treatment groups: control (basal diet), PRO (Bacillus licheniformis), SYN (Bacillus licheniformis + dietary fiber), and SYP. The feeding trial lasted for 28 days. Notably, pigs in the SYN and SYP groups showed greater average daily gain during phase 1 (p = 0.038), phase 2 (p = 0.008), and the overall period (p = 0.011) compared with those in the control group. Gain-to-feed ratio was also improved during phase 2 (p = 0.003) and the overall experimental period (p = 0.012). The SYP group demonstrated significantly improved dry matter digestibility during phase 2 (p < 0.05). Serum IL-1β concentrations tended to decrease in pigs fed SYN and SYP diets. In addition, SYN and SYP supplementation increased the concentration of the tight junction protein zona occludens-1 (ZO-1) in the jejunum (p = 0.022). Histological analysis showed greater villus height in the duodenum (p = 0.013) and jejunum (p = 0.038) of pigs fed SYN and SYP diets. Overall, dietary supplementation with synbiotics, particularly in combination with benzoic acid, improved growth performance and intestinal health in weanling pigs.

Keywords: weaning pigs; probiotics; benzoic acid; microbiota; immunity