Field Evaluation of the Effect of a Probiotic‐containing Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis Spores on the Health Status, Performance, and Carcass Quality of Grower and Finisher Pigs

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of BioPlus 2B, a probiotic containing Bacillus licheniformis and B. subtilis spores, on the health status and productivity of pigs, during weaning, growing and finishing stages of growth. On a commercial farrow-to-finish farm, five experimental groups were formed, each of 54 weaned piglets. The pigs of the first group (double controls) received normal feed with no probiotic and the pigs of the second group (untreated controls) received BioPlus 2B only during the weaning stage. The pigs of the third, the fourth and the fifth group received the same as the second group feed but, at the growing and at a part of the finishing stages, supplemented with three different doses of Bioplus 2B, a low, medium and high dose, respectively. The results have shown that, compared with the double controls, BioPlus 2B-treated pigs had a lower morbidity and mortality during the whole trial period, compared with the double controls (range from 9.26 to 14.81% versus 25.93% and from 0.00 to 3.70% versus 11.1%, respectively), as a result of the lower incidence of post-weaning diarrhoea due mainly to Escherichia coli. Weight gain, feed conversion ratio and carcass quality of the BioPlus 2B-treated pigs were significantly improved compared with the double controls, whilst the beneficial effects of the probiotic were more pronounced when the medium and high doses were used.

Effect of benzoic acid and combination of benzoic acid with a probiotic containing Bacillus Cereus var. toyoi in weaned pig nutrition

“…Toyoi spores, such as Toyocerin ® in sows (Alexopoulos et al 2001, 2004a,b, Taras et al 2005, Stamati et al 2006 or pigs of other ages (Baum et al 2002, Kyriakis et al 2003. There are also quite a few studies, proving the efficiency of probiotics during the post-weaning period, but there are only scarce published data referring to trials with the use of combination of benzoic acid and probiotics containg Bacillus cereus var.…”

Effects of Bacillus subtilis natto on milk production, rumen fermentation and ruminal microbiome of dairy cows

“…Recently, several -Email: jqwangcaas@gmail.com Bacillus sp. bacteria, such as Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis have gained attention for their role in controlling infectious diseases, thereby improving productive performance in animals (Alexopoulos et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2009). Furthermore, the spore forms of these bacteria have the ability to survive in the digestive tract (Casula and Cutting, 2002).…”

Performance of weanling piglets offered low-, medium- or high-lactose diets supplemented with a seaweed extract from Laminaria spp.

“…These abrupt changes disturb the equilibrium of the microflora in the gut, making them susceptible to enteric pathogens (Alexopoulos et al, 2004), decreased feed intake and daily gain (Estrada et al, 2001). In an attempt to control some of these problems, there has been widespread use of in-feed antibiotics at both a therapeutic level and sub-therapeutic level (Williams et al, 2001).…”