First, the most important foundation of Clostridium butyricum is creating a healthy intestinal environment, when Clostridium butyricum enters the intestinal tract, it will compete with pathogenic and harmful bacteria for space, oxygen and nutrients, also produce organic acids which will inhibit the growth of bad bacteria, promote the growth of good bacteria. Let me put it this way, if bad guys break into your house, you don’t need to burn the whole house down, obviously you still need the house, so the right thing to do is sending police officers to take the bad guys out. Clostridium butyricum is our super police that not only maintain the peaceful intestinal environment, help the good bacteria grow into a balanced community of microflora , protect the intestinal villi, but also produce variety of beneficial metabolites to restore the intestinal mucosa damage and provide nutrients directly to the host.

Second, Clostridium butyricum has strong effects on promoting digestion and absorption, so the animal grow faster and stay healthier. As I introduced in last video, Clostridium butyricum is absolute anaerobic bacteria, this feature allows Clostridium butyricum to colonize in hind-gut where has no oxygen, when the indigestible feed residue from mid-gut arrive in hind-gut, there are still nutrients left in them which can be digested by Clostridium butyricum, turn the feed residue into useful substances. In fact, one of the most important purpose of probiotic products is for the beneficial metabolites produced by the strains. When Clostridium butyricum arrive in animals gut, it will wake up from spore form, colonize, reproduce and start making vast amount of beneficial metabolites, such as compound enzymes - protease, cellulase, amylase; organic acids - mainly butyric acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, amino acid, short-chain fatty acid etc. As well as vitamin B and K, antimicrobial peptides and so on. These beneficial metabolites not only provide nutrients and energy to the host, but also serve as food for other probiotic strains, maintain the balance of intestinal microflora with dominance of good bacteria, further improve digestion and absorption.

Ok, let’s move on to the third mechanism of Clostridium butyricum, maintaining the intestinal barrier functions. The gut fights in very front-line defending the health, its barrier functions are important shields to keep out the pathogens and other harmful substance. Lets see how Clostridium butyricum can contribute to these barriers. First is physical barrier, Clostridium butyricum induces the expression of tight junction protein gene, enhance the connection between cells, reduce cell permeability, regulate the apoptosis process of epithelial cell and effectively protect the integrity of intestine. Second is the chemical barrier, Clostridium butyricum promotes the secretion of antimicrobial and defensive substance by the epithelial cells; Clostridium butyricum also adhere to epithelial cells to stimulate the secretion of mucin, which forms a protective layer between intestinal mucosa and pathogens; moreover, Clostridium butyricum produces vast  organic acids, reduce the pH to create an acidic environment which is very friendly for good bacteria but not friendly for the bad ones.

The third one is immune barrier, Clostridium butyricum enhance immune system by promoting production of specific and non-specific IgA antibodies. The last one is biological barrier, Clostridium butyricum compete with pathogens for space and nutrients in mucous membrane; and promote the growth of good bacteria. Well, you have to forgive me, what I just told you are rather simple way of explaining a very complicated theory, because I think its much easier to understand this way.

The fourth function of Clostridium butyricum is anti-stress. Stress is the body’s dysfunctional and defensive response to abnormal stimuli, can be caused by many reasons, such as diet change, transportation, heat waves and so on, very bad for health, causing energy overdraft, diseases, body damage or even death. Especially in animal farming business, the livestock often living in very intensive and crowed environment, stress problems are more likely to happen, could trigger big problems for the business. Clostridium butyricum can deal with the stress from two aspects, firstly, Clostridium butyricum is involved in neuromodulation, connects with the nerve system through intestinal flora, participates in the regulation of the nerve system, and achieves the effect of stabilizing the animal population. Secondly, Clostridium butyricum increase the body’s antioxidant enzyme activity, secrete butyric acid, hydrogen and other antioxidants which clear free radicals, reduce oxidative stress, inhibit inflammation, maintain the body’s internal environment balance. The stress problem is a big issue for animal farming business, especially for large scale farms with intensive livestock populations, and the probiotic is the best solution.

The fifth function of Clostridium butyricum is about improving immunity. Clostridium butyricum regulates immune system as a stimulating factor, promote the development of immune organs, activate lymphatic tissues, stimulate and induce the production of SlgA, and enhance the immune function. Clostridium butyricum also regulates the immune pathway and expression of immune factors through specific receptors and resist the invasion of pathogenic microorganisms. We all know COVID19 has caused millions of death all over the world already and its not stopping, people begin paying attention to the immunity improvement function of probiotics, and we are seeing that food products contain probiotic materials are becoming more popular than ever, for both humans and animals.

The sixth function of Clostridium butyricum is inhibiting inflammation. Inflammation is a manifestation of excessive immune level, Clostridium butyricum has a significant effect on inhibiting inflammatory response through 3 pathways. I’m not going to explain them in detail because it’s very complicated science, if you are interested, you can leave me a message, I can send you scientific articles regarding all the things I said today. By now you should have a general idea of how Clostridium butyricum works to improve the overall health