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An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of using Effective Micro-organisms (EM) as an alternative to antibiotics (AB) on growth performance, feed utilisation and serum cholesterol of broilers. Dietary treatments consisted of supplementation with neither AB nor EM, AB only, EM only or AB plus EM. The EM was supplemented at either 15 g/kg or 30 g/kg while the AB (Zinc Bacitracin) was added at 500 mg/kg. At six weeks of age, birds fed diets with neither the EM nor AB had significantly (P<.05) lower weight gains (2066 g) than the rest of the treatments. Birds fed the diet containing AB and EM at 30 g/kg had significantly (P<.05) higher body weight gain (2096g) than the rest of the treatments. The improvements in BWG were associated with slight enhancement of feed efficiency while the EM effects were more pronounced at the higher dosage (30 g/kg). The poorest feed:gain ratio (1.82) was observed in birds fed diets containing neither EM nor AB. Apart from improving dressing percentage, EM supplementation also resulted in birds with low serum cholesterol levels. This study has shown that EM has growth promoting and hypocholesteremic effects and offers a potential alternative to antibiotics in broiler diets. Introduction Antibiotics (AB) continue to be used in the poultry industry as growth stimulants and therapeutic agents. However, due to the fact that continued use of AB tends to stimulate development of resistance from harmful micro-organisms, there is currently an outcry from the consumer society and health sector to ban their (AB) use as feed additives in animal and poultry feeds. It is therefore urgent and imperative that an alternative to replace antibiotics should be found. However, such an alternative should elicit positive results similar to those of AB without compromising bird growth, feed utilisation and the quality of final product. According to this criteria, and based on the current available knowledge on feed additives, probiotics seem to be the best alternative.