This study was carried out to evalu

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of supplementing diets with Bacillus subtilis var. natto (Bac natto) or Bac licheniformis-fermented Ginkgo biloba leaves (FG) on growth performance, intestinal morphology, absorption function and apoptosis in chicks. A total of 240 one-day-old Arbor Acress broilers, were randomly allocated to 3 dietary treatments with 8 replications of 10 birds each. Birds were fed basal diets (control), basal diets supplemented with 0.35% FG with Bac natto (FBN group), or basal diets supplemented with 0.35% PG with Bac licheniform (FBL group), respectively, for 42 d. The results showed an improvement with low mortality due to F/G in FBN and FBL groups during the period of 22-42 d and 0-42 d, respectively compared to the control group. Compared with the control group, birds fed with PG diets had higher activities of pancreatic, duodenal and jejunal protease as well as pancreatic and duodenal amylase. Duodenal villus height and VH/CD ratio, as well as jejunal VH/CD ratio was improved in FBN or FBL groups. In addition, decreased duodenal apoptosis index (AI) was observed in PG groups compared with the control group. Birds in both FG groups exerted an increased plasma D-xylose, whereas broilers fed FBN diets led to lower serum urea nitrogen (SUN) levels compared with the control group. The present study may indicate that application of PG in the diet proved to have positive influence on feed efficiency and intestinal absorption functions.