Productive Performance, Serum Antioxidant Status, Tissue Selenium Deposition, and Gut Health Analysis of Broiler Chickens Supplemented with Selenium and Probiotics—A Pilot Study

SIMPLE SUMMARY: For several years, the benefits of dietary selenium or probiotics on growth and development of broilers have been reported. However, the effect of a combination of different forms of selenium and probiotics on broilers remains to be seen. Thus, the hypothesis of this study was that supplementing selenium and probiotics have positive synergistic effects and interactions on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, tissue selenium deposition, and intestinal health of broilers. The results of this study demonstrate that selenium and probiotics have positive interactions on the tissue selenium content, duodenum, and jejunum development, as well as the composition of cecum microbial, and there were no significant interactions on the growth performance, and antioxidant capacity. Overall, our findings suggest that the combination of organic selenium and probiotics is superior to inorganic or organic selenium alone in poultry production. ABSTRACT: The effect and interaction of dietary selenium (Se) and probiotics on three yellow chicken growth performance, tissue Se content, antioxidant capacity, and gut health were studied from 0 to 70 days of age. A total of 400 one-day-old broilers were distributed into four groups (I-Se, O-Se, I-Se + pros, and O-Se + pros groups) consisting of a 2 × 2 factorial design. The main factors were the source of Se (I-Se = inorganic Se: 0.2 mg/kg sodium selenite; O-Se = organic Se: 0.2 mg/kg Selenium yeast) and the level of probiotics (0.5% EM or 0% EM, the component of EM mainly includes Lactobacillus and Yeast at the dose of 2 × 10(8) cfu/kg and 3 × 10(7) cfu/kg, respectively). Each treatment had 5 duplicates consisting of 20 broilers. The results showed that the I-Se group had a greater (p < 0.05) ratio of feed: weight gain (F/G) of broilers at Starter (0–35 d) than the other treatments. Compared to the I-Se group, the O-Se group increased (p < 0.05) Se concentrations in the liver, pancreas, breast muscles, thigh muscle, and the activity of total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) in serum, as well as the relative abundance of Barnesiella and Lactobacillus in cecum. Meanwhile, probiotics enhanced (p < 0.05) Se concentrations in the pancreas, thigh muscle, serum, and the activity of T-AOC and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), the duodenum’s ratio of villi height to crypt depth (V/C), the jejunum villus height and V/C, and the ileum’s villus height. Furthermore, the significant interactions (p < 0.05) between Se sources and the level of probiotics were observed in Se concentrations in the pancreas, thigh muscle, serum, crypt depth of duodenum, and villus height of jejunum of birds, and Barnesiella abundance in the cecal. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the combination of O-Se + pros can improve broiler early growth performance, tissue Se content in the pancreas, thigh muscle, and serum, promote intestinal development, and regulate the composition of intestinal flora, suggesting a better combination. These findings provide an effective method of nutrient combination addition to improving the performance of three yellow chickens.