Effects of probiotics and selenium combination on the immune and blood cholesterol concentration of pigs

Ninety-six weanling piglets (four weeks old) were randomly assigned into four treatments as follows: 1. control group, 2. probiotics group, 3. probiotics combined with 0.3 ppm organic selenium and 4. carbadox group. Collected data was analysed by using the GLM program of SAS (1990), and each of the two groups was compared using Duncan’s test, while the GLM analysis was significant. The experimental results revealed no influence on pig growth performance by the addition of probiotics alone or with the selenium. The immunoglobulin–G concentration of the probiotics with the 0.3 ppm selenium group was the highest among the four groups, and significantly (P<0.05) higher than the control group. The mortality of the piglets (all survived) and the very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) concentration of the probiotics group was the lowest (P<0.05) among the four groups for the probiotic and with selenium groups when compared to the control and carbadox groups.