Probiotics in Poultry Nutrition: A comprehensive Bibliometric and thematic analysis of two decades of research (2000-2025)

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric and thematic analysis of two decades of global research on probiotics in poultry nutrition (2000-2025) using the R bibliometric library version 4.4.3 and VOSviewer software version 1.6.20. Based on a documentary corpus of 4 447 publications from 317 scientific journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), it maps the evolution of scientific production, major actors, international collaboration networks, and thematic structure of the field. According to the analyses, China, the United States, and Egypt are the most productive countries in this field, and the United States appears as a central actor, with collaborations connecting several continents. Wang Y., Wang J., and Liu Y appear as major contributors to research on probiotics in poultry nutrition, and Zagazig University, an Egyptian university, appears as the most influential institution. The results also reveal exponential growth in publications particularly from 2016 onwards, as well as progressive structuring of the field around dominant themes such as “broilers”, “growth-performance”, “performance”, “probiotics”, and “supplementation”, shifting from primarily zootechnical approaches towards more integrated investigations, including interactions between intestinal microbiota, growth performance, and immune response. Despite this apparent maturity, the field remains fragmented, with dispersion of themes and approaches. This study thus constitutes one of the first bibliometric analyses specifically dedicated to probiotics in avian nutrition and highlights the need for better conceptual integration to guide future research and optimize the use of these additives in poultry production.