Technical article
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.
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.
Antibiotic reduction is a major topic in the livestock sector and the pressure is on to reduce their use. This special section focuses on measures that could be taken to reduce and eventually move away from antibiotic use in the livestock sector.
Based on these results, supplementation with probiotics, bacillus subtilius in diets for weaned pigs can improve gut health, decrease diarrhoea incidences, and improve the performance of weaned pigs similar to the levels achieved with antibiotics. Reducing dietary crude protein may act synergistically with probiotics to further improve gut health, pig performance and reduce nitrogen excretion. Therefore, a holistic approach of combining low CP diets, probiotics and fermentable fibres should be considered as part of an antibiotic growth promoter-free gut health concept towards more sustainable pig production.
In the future, a new class of feed probiotics can be created based on these bacteria, the scientists said, adding that the new products could bring great benefits to livestock farmers.