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2022-12-26
Feeding of probiotic(beneficial microbes) can enhance animal productivity and improve product safety. Ongoing research looks at the actual mode of action, efficacy and application for animal diets (livestock, fish, pets and even wildlife) and whether or not this reflects in better zootechnical performance and health and hence profit for the farmer or animal owner.
Lowering dietary pH by weak organic acids was found to overcome these problems. The main activity of organic acids is associated with a reduction in gastric pH converting the inactive pepsinogen to active pepsin for effective protein hydrolysis. Organic acids are both bacteriostatic and bactericidal.
2022-12-26
The application of probiotics to improve intestinal health was discussed by Dr. Mick Bayley, a professor of comparative immunology at Bristol University. “Weaning piglets whose immune system is still insufficiently developed can cause hypersensitivity to certain feed antigens which are unknown to them, for instance soy proteins,” said Bayley. The capability of the immune system of the intestinal mucus to take the appropriate “immunity decisions” is an important component of gut health and does not work in newborn or germ-free animals. Different bacterial colonization patterns guide the development of this immune system. This can be manipulated somewhat in very young animals via the diet and the addition of pre- or probiotics. The shift patterns are complex, interactive and influenced by a multitude of factors, such as targeted use of antibiotics to treat specific diseases. We can do targeted nutritional interventions, according to Mick Baylay, to improve health and performance. Trials in pigs showed that a new developed probotic* reduced diarrhoea and high mortality by infection with Salmonella and E. coli.
2022-12-23
Probiotics are on every list of tools to reduce therapeutic antibiotic usage. They have been shown to reduce diarrhoea, even necrotic enteritis. They improve welfare through reduced foot pad lesions and easily replace the effects of antibiotic growth promoters via feed. In layers some have been shown to improve shell quality, while also having a positive effect on FCR. First studies also show a clear effect on reduction of colistin and other therapeutic antibiotics. The big question is which strains can have the desired effect? Especially within the Bacillus subtilis group there is considerable genetic variation, easily explained by the wide ecological niche this species has adapted to.
Although antibiotics remain the preferred method of treatment for BRD, growing concerns regarding antibiotic use in food animal production and the subsequent effect on antibiotic resistance, has promoted other alternative methods to be tested, such as yeast probiotic and purified yeast fraction. The selected trial cattle, consisting of 120 heifers and 120 steers, arrived in separate heifer and steer batches, 1 week apart. The animals were then vaccinated against clostridial diseases, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR), Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV) and Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) and given an anthelmintic treatment before being randomly assigned to their respective grazing pastures, divided into groups of 15 calves each and spread across 16 pasture blocks. The calves were also assigned on a random basis to either a control group or a supplemented group.
2022-12-22
Despite there being a huge variety of dosage among commercial probiotic spore-formers, comparing them on this basis is not viable. Probiotic properties are strain-specific or strain-dependent, so it’s wrong to assume that the more colony-forming-units (CFUS) ingested, the better the animal’s performance. Rather, it is the responsibility of suppliers to set the optimal inclusion dose for their product, and this should be based on the results of rigorous in vivo studies. In addition, using a multi-strain probiotic does offer advantages as it combines strain specificities and delivers complimentary benefits.