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This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with a mixture of Bacillus, which serves as an alternative of antibiotics on the intestinal ecosystem of weaned piglets.

We randomly assigned 120 piglets to three groups: a control group (a basal diet), a probiotics group (a basal diet supplemented with 4 × 10⁹ CFU per gram Bacillus licheniformis‐Bacillus subtilis mixture; BLS mix), and an antibiotics group (a basal diet supplemented with 0·04 kg t⁻¹ virginiamycin, 0·2 kg t⁻¹ colistin and 3000 mg kg⁻¹ zinc oxide). All groups had five replicates with eight piglets per replicate. On days 7, 21 and 42 of the trial, intestine tissue and digesta samples were collected to determine intestinal morphology, gut microbiota and bacterial metabolite composition, and the expression of genes related to the gut barrier function and inflammatory …