Abstract: This study investigated the effect of Bacillus licheniformis on growth performance, digestive enzymes activity of pancreas, disaccharidase of intestinal mucosa and the number of intestinal main microbial flora of weaned piglets raised in fermentation bed. One hundred and eight 35-day-old weaned piglets with similar average body weight were randomly divided into three groups with three replicates in each group and twelve piglets in each replicate. The weaned piglets in three groups were fed a basal diet (control group, CT), basal diet+40 mg/kg bacitracin zinc+20 mg/kg colistin sulphate (antibiotic group, ABT) and basal diet+300 mg/kg Bacillus licheniformis (probiotics group, PBT). The pre-test period lasted for 7 days and the trial period lasted for 52 days. The results showed as follows:①Compared with the control group, the supplementation of Bacillus licheniformis could increase ADG, ADFI and decrease F/G to some extent, but there were no significant differences in growth performance among all groups (P>0.05). ②Compared with the control group, the supplementation of Bacillus licheniformis extremely significantly increased the activitiy of amylase in pancreas, the activity of maltase in duodenum mucosa and the activity of lactase in jejunum mucosa (P<0.01), and significantly increased the activity of sucrase in duodenum and jejunum mucosa (P<0.05). ③Compared with the control group, the supplementation of Bacillus licheniformis significantly increased the number of Bacillus in caecum (P<0.05), and the number of Lactobacillus was increased by 4.09%, the number of Escherichia coli was decreased by 4.86%, but the differences were not significant (P>0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of 300 mg/kg Bacillus licheniformis could improve the activity of digestive enzymes in pancreas and intestinal mucosa of piglets, increase the number of Bacillus in caecum, and improve the growth performance to some extent.

Key words: Bacillus licheniformis; fermentation bed; digestive enzymes; microbiology flora