• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.879-890
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the use of Megasphaera elsdenii (M. elsdenii) as a probiotic on rumen fermentation, production performance, carcass traits and health of ruminants by integrating data from various related studies using meta-analysis. Methods: A total of 32 studies (consisted of 136 data points) were obtained and integrated into a database. The parameters integrated were fermentation products, rumen microbes, production performance, carcass quality, animal health, blood and urine metabolites. Statistical analysis of the compiled database used a mixed model methodology. Different studies were considered random effects, while M. elsdenii supplementation doses were considered fixed effects. p-values and the Akaike information criterion were employed as model statistics. The model was deemed significant at p<0.05 or had a tendency to be significant when p-value between 0.05<p<0.10. Results: Supplementation with M. elsdenii increased (p<0.05) some proportion of fermented rumen products such as propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate, and valerate, and significantly reduced (p<0.05) lactic acid concentration, acetate proportion, total bacterial population and methane emission. Furthermore, the probiotic supplementation enhanced (p<0.05) livestock production performance, especially in the average daily gain and body condition score. Regarding the carcass quality, hot carcass weight and carcass gain were elevated (p< 0.05) due to the M. elsdenii supplementation. Animal health also showed improvement as indicated by the lower (p<0.05) diarrhoea and bloat incidences as well as the liver abscess. However, M. elsdenii supplementation had negligible effects on blood and urine metabolites of ruminants. Conclusion: Supplementation of M. elsdenii is capable of decreasing ruminal lactic acid concentration, enhancing rumen health, elevating some favourable rumen fermentation products, and in turn, increasing production performance of ruminants.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1243-1251
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• 2007

This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using L. reuteri Pg4, a strain isolated from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of healthy broilers, as a probiotic. In preliminary in vitro studies the Pg4 strain was proven capable of tolerating acid and bile salts, inhibiting pathogenic bacteria and can adhere to intestinal epithelial cells. The probiotic properties were then evaluated on the basis of the broiler's growth performance, intestinal microbial population and cecal volatile fatty acid and lactic acid concentrations under conventional feeding. Dietary supplementation of dried L. reuteri Pg4 decreased significantly feed intake in grower chickens and improved significantly the feed conversion by 5% in a 0-6 weeks feeding period compared with the control group. The Lactobacillus counts in the crop, ileum, and cecum of the probiotic group were higher than in the control group. The L. reuteri Pg4 strain was traceable in the GI tract of probiotic supplemented chicks and showed capability of survival in the intestine for a protracted period. The probiotic group had a higher lactic acid concentration and lower pH value in the cecum than the control chicks. Probiotic supplement also affected the histology of the intestinal mucosa of chicks. The present findings demonstrated that L. reuteri Pg4 possesses probiotic characteristics and it is suggested, therefore, that the organism could be a candidate for a new probiotic strain.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.114-119
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• 2003

The fermentative conversion of food wastes into probiotic feed was investigated by seeding of mixed inoculum of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After grinding finely, optimal fermentation conditions for aeration was investigated at $30^{\circ}C$, The viable cell count of lactic acid bacteria and yeast during fermentation were monitored by controlling aeration rate at each different aeration degree of 0v.v.m 0rpm, 0.25v.v.m 100rpm, 0.5v.v.m 200rpm, and 1v.v.m 500rpm respectively. The most active growth of the yeast was shown at 0.5v.v.m 200rpm as $4.5{\times}10^9CFU/m{\ell}$. By controlling aeration rate, the pH of the probiotics feed could be controlled between 4-5 for the enhancement of preservation characteristics and acceptability for cattle feeding.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.1617-1623
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• 2020

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary probiotic blend and liquid feed program at different nutritional densities on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal score of weaning piglets. Methods: A total of 120 weaning pigs with an initial body weight of 7.05±0.93 kg per pig (21 days of age) were randomly allocated into 1 of the following 8 dietary treatments (3 replicates per treatment with 5 pigs per replicate) in a 2×2×2 factorial arrangement (nutrition levels: apparent metabolic energy [AME] = 3,500 kcal/kg, crude protein [CP] = 20% vs AME = 3,400 kcal/kg, CP = 19.42%; feed types:dry vs wet; probiotics levels: 0 mg/kg vs 300 mg/kg). Results: During d 5 to d 15, greater average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.05) were observed in probiotics treatments. During d 15 to d 25, gain:feed (G:F) ratio (p<0.05) were significantly improved in probiotics, wet feed and high nutrition diet. Moreover, two interactions i) between nutrition levels and feed types, and ii) between nutrition levels and probiotics were found in G:F ratio. Furthermore, there was a significant positive interaction on G:F among those 3 factors (p<0.05). Overall, increasing ADG, ADFI, and G:F ratio were detected in probiotics treatment significantly (p<0.05). Besides, an obvious reduction on fecal score was observed in probiotics treatment from d 0 to d 5 (p<0.05). There was an interactive effect on fecal score between feed types and nutrition concentrations from d 5 to d 25 (p<0.05). Conclusion: These results indicated that probiotics supplementation could benefit growth performance and reduce the frequency of watery feces. Besides, wet feed program (feed:water = 1:1.25) could improve the G:F. The effect of liquid feed or probiotic could be influenced by dietary nutrition density in weaned piglets. An increased value of G:F was obtained when wet feeding a high nutrition diet (100 kcal higher than NRC 2012 recommendations) was supplemented with probiotics for 15 to 25 days.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1285-1293
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• 2012

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of commercial monostrain and multistrain probiotics in diets on growth performance, intestinal morphology and mucin gene (MUC2) expression in broiler chicks. Three hundred seventy-eight 1-d-old male Arian broiler chicks were allocated in 3 experimental groups for 6 wk. The birds were fed on a corn-soybean based diet and depending on the addition were labeled as follows: control-unsupplemented (C), birds supplemented with Bacillus subtilis (BS) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) based probiotics. Each treatment had 6 replicates of 21 broilers each. Treatment effects on body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and biomarkers such as intestinal goblet cell density, villus length, villus width, and mucin gene expression were determined. Total feed intake did not differ significantly between control birds and those fed a diet with probiotics (p>0.05). However, significant differences in growth performance were found. Final body weight at 42 d of age was higher in birds fed a diet with probiotics compared to those fed a diet without probiotic (p<0.05). Inclusion of Bacillus subtilis based probiotic in the diets also significantly affected feed conversion rate (FCR) compared with control birds (p<0.05). No differences in growth performance were observed in birds fed different types of probiotic supplemented diets. Inclusion of lactic acid bacteria based probiotic in the diets significantly increased goblet cell number and villus length (p<0.05). Furthermore, diets with Bacillus subtilis based probiotics significantly increased gene expression (p<0.05), with higher intestinal MUC2 mRNA in birds fed diet with probiotics compared to those fed the control diet. In BS and LAB probiotic fed chicks, higher growth performance may be related to higher expression of the MUC2 gene in goblet cells and/or morphological change of small intestinal tract. The higher synthesis of the mucin gene after probiotic administration may positively affect bacterial interactions in the intestinal digestive tract, intestinal mucosal cell proliferation and consequently efficient nutrient absorption.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1326-1331
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• 2003

The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of Toyocerin, a probiotic containing Bacillus toyoi spores, on the health status and productivity of pigs, during nursery, growing and finishing phases. On a commercial farrow-to-finish farm in Greece, 3 experimental groups were formed, each of 72 weaned piglets. The pigs of the first group (T1 group; negative controls) received normal feed with no antimicrobials or probiotics, the pigs of the second group (T2 group) received the same type of feed but supplemented with 1.0${\times}$10$^9$, 0.5${\times}$10$^9$ and 0.2${\times}$10$^9$ spores per kg of feed at weaning, growing and finishing stage, respectively, and the pigs of the third group (T3 group) were fed with Toyocerin at the dose of 1.0${\times}$10$^9$ spores per kg of feed during the entire fattening period (weaning, growing and finishing stages). The results have shown that, compared to the controls, Toyocerin treated pigs had reduced incidence of postweaning diarrhoea (p<0.05). Enterotoxigenic strains of Escherichia coli were detected in faecal samples of 0% to 25% of pigs of the treated groups, but in 33.5% to 50% of pigs of the non-treated group (p<0.05). Over the negative controls, a significant improvement of weight gain (4.5% and 8.3% for T2 and T3 groups, respectively), and of feed conversion ratio (6.6% and 13.0% for T2 and T3 groups, respectively) was observed. The 76.5% of the carcasses of the T3 group was classified in the top three categories of the EUROP scale (S, E and U), whilst the respective figures were 47.8% for T2 group and only 10.5% for T1 group (p<0.05).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.587-592
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• 2006

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementation with bacillus-based probiotic (Bacillus subtilis, $1.0{\times}10^7CFU/g$; Bacillus coagulans, $2.0{\times}10^6CFU/g$ and Lactobacillus acidophilus, $5.0{\times}10^6CFU/g$) on finishing pigs growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood characteristics and fecal noxious gas content and to determine the optimal addition level of this probiotic preparation. A total of forty eight pigs with an initial body weight (BW) of $90.60{\pm}2.94kg$ were allotted to three dietary treatments (four pigs per pen with four pens per treatment) according to a randomized complete block design. Dietary treatment included: 1) CON (basal diet); 2) BP1 (basal diet+bacillus-based probiotic 0.1%) and 3) BP2 (basal diet+bacillus-based probiotic 0.2%). The experiment lasted 6 weeks. Through the entire experimental period, ADG was improved by 11% (p<0.05) in pigs fed diets supplemented with 0.2% bacillus-based probiotic compared to pigs fed the basal diet. ADFI and gain/feed were not affected by the treatments (p>0.05). Supplementation of bacillus-based probiotic did not affect either DM and N digestibilities or blood characteristics (p>0.05) of pigs. Fecal ammonia nitrogen ($NH_3$-N) measured at the end of experiment was reduced (p<0.05) when pigs were fed the diet with 0.2% bacillus-based probiotic. Fecal butyric acid concentration also decreased significantly (p<0.05) whereas acetic acid and propionic acid concentrations were not affected (p>0.05) when pigs were fed diets with added bacillus-based probiotic. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of bacillus-based probiotic can increase growth performance and decrease fecal noxious gas content concentration.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.119-127
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• 2012

To investigate the influence of multi-probiotic, fermented ginseng byproduct and fermented sulfone on the performance, intestinal microflora and immunity of broiler, a five weeks trial was conducted with 340, 1-d-old $Ross{\times}Ross$ broiler. All broilers were divided into five different groups having 68 birds in each treatment, and they were assigned as control, antibiotic avilamycin (AB), multi-probiotic (MP), fermented sulfone (FS) and fermented ginseng byproduct (FGB). Each artificial or naturally derived probiotic was inoculated 0.1% level with the basal diet, and all diets were provided to birds for five weeks. Weight gain and feed intake were measured weekly basis, and blood, spleen and feces were collectedand used for the physiological properties of broiler chickens. All performances and cholesterol profiles were not significantly differed but numerically lower level of neutral fat and LDL was found in multi-probiotics and FGB treatments respectively. The salmonella spp and E. coli numbers in the ileum were high in control in relation to those of other treatments and were significantly decreased in antibiotics treatments (p<0.05). In addition, Lactobacillus spp. showed significantly higher proliferation in MP as compared to that of others (p<0.05). Fecal ammonia and $CO_2$ gas emission was significantly decreased in MP, FGB and FS, respectively (p<0.05), but significantly increased proliferation of spleen was determined in MP group in comparison of other treatments (p<0.05). Therefore, the results indicates that multi-probiotics would be valuable feed additives to improve the salmonella, E. coli and Lactobacillus proliferation, and manure gas emission of broiler chickens, but further study related to the production of manure gas emission of MP is necessary.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.2_spc
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• pp.356-363
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• 2022

This paper is a review of some experiments using black soldier fly (BSF) and its by-product to explore their nutritional value, production potential in Indonesia and its application in the ration of ruminants. Evaluation on the effect of milk replacer, creep feed containing BSF, BSF frass and the possibility to use lactic acid bacteria from BSF as probiotics are presented. Utilization of BSF larvae in milk replacer as skim and cream milk substitute showed that there were similarity on physiological, hematological status and performance of goat kids compared to those offered goat milk or commercial milk replacer. In addition, BSF larvae can be used to substitute soybean meal in the creep feed for post weaning goat kids without any differences in weight gain and blood profiles. However, utilization of BSF frass in the fattening goat ration resulted lower digestibility of dry matter and organic matter due to the chitin content in the frass. Black soldier fly larvae grown on chicken manure harbour lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which have potential as probiotics for ruminants. In general, BSF larvae has potential as ingredient for milk replacer, creep feed, fattening ration, and source of LAB for probiotics.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1336-1342
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• 2005

The present research work was conducted to evaluate the beneficial effects as well as the safety aspects of lactobacilli as probiotic. Lactobacilli were isolated from poultry faecal samples, feed samples and from some known preparations procured from poultry feed manufacturers. L. acidophilus and L. sporogenes were tested for the antibacterial activity against four poultry pathogens viz. Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Proteus spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cell free supernatant (CFS) of L. acidophilus exhibited significantly higher antibacterial activity against Salmonella spp. at original pH (4.50${\pm}$0.02). At the adjusted pH (6.50${\pm}$0.02) significantly higher antibacterial activity was recorded against indicator organism except for P. aeruginosa. Likewise, L. sporogenes exhibited similar antibacterial activity at original as well as adjusted pH except for E. coli. Antibacterial activity against E. coli was significantly higher at adjusted pH than at original pH of CFS. The competitive exclusion of E. coli by lactobacilli over the intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) was checked. L. acidophilus strain I, which was of poultry origin, exhibited maximum attachment over IEC as compared to other three strains of non-poultry origin viz. L. acidophilus strain II, L. sporogenes strain I and II. Overall, L. acidophilus exhibited higher competitive exclusion as compared to L. sporogenes. All the lactobacilli of poultry origin were most sensitive to penicillin G, amoxycillin, ampicillin and chloramphenicol, least sensitive to sulphamethizole, ciprofloxacin, neomycin, norfloxacin and pefloxacin and resistant to metronidazole and nalidixic acid. The isolates from probiotic preparations were most sensitive to ampicillin, amoxycillin and tetracycline, least sensitive to sulphamethizole, norfloxacin, neomycin and ceftriazone and resistant to nalidixic acid and metronidazole. Eight of the multiple drug resistant lactobacilli isolates were studied for the presence of plasmids. Plasmids could be extracted from six isolates of lactobacilli. These plasmids could be responsible for bacteriocin production or for antibiotic resistance of the strains. The lactobacilli need further studies regarding their safety for use in the probiotic preparations.