El Jeni, RimDittoe, Dana K.Olson, Elena G.Lourenco, JefersonCorcionivoschi, NicolaeRicke, Steven C.Callaway, Todd R.2021-06-072021-06-072021-03-26Jeni, R. E., Dittoe, D. K., Olson, E. G., Lourenco, J., Corcionivoschi, N., Ricke, S. C. and Callaway, T. R. (2021) ‘Probiotics and potential applications for alternative poultry production systems’, Poultry Science, 100(7), p. 101156. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2021.101156.0032-5791https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2021.101156Publication history: Accepted - 17 March 2021; Published online - 26 March 2021.Concerns over animal welfare continue to be a critical component of law and policies associated with commercial food animal production. Social and market pressures are the driving forces behind the legislation and result in the change of poultry production management systems. As a result, the movement toward cagefree and aviary-based egg production systems has become standard practices. Cage-based systems being replaced by alternative methods that offer a suitable housing environment to meet or exceed poultry welfare needs and require different management, including the ban of antibiotics in poultry diets. For broiler production, pasture- raised and free-range management systems have become more popular. However, challenges remain from exposure to disease-causing organisms and foodborne pathogens in these environments. Consequently, probiotics can be supplemented in poultry diets as commercial feed additives. The present review discusses the impacts of these probiotics on the performance of alternative poultry production systems for improving food safety and poultry health by mitigating pathogenic organisms and improving egg and meat quality and production.en© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Poultry Science Association Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).alternative poultry productionprobioticsgastrointestinal tractfood safetyperformanceArticle