Gut Health and Organic Acids, Antimicrobial Peptides, and Botanicals as Natural Feed Additives

In vitro and in vivo antibacterial activities of cranberry press cake extracts alone or in combination with β-lactams against Staphylococcus aureus

“…We did indeed report the presence of multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria in animal food production [45,46]. In order to reduce antibiotic use, which could help break down emergence of antibiotic resistance in conventional and organic animal production, several alternatives to antibiotics have been investigated although none of these alternatives was proven to be as efficient as antibiotics [47,48]. We previously suggested that cranberry fruit derivatives could be developed to improve health and on-farm food safety while reducing the use of antibiotics as growth promoters [19].…”

Salmonella Control in Food Production

“…In general, these natural compounds with animal, plant, or microbiological origins have been employed in order to kill or at least prevent the growth of pathogenic microorganisms in a variety of different applications (Joerger, 2003;Ricke, 2003a;Berghman et al, 2005;Sirsat et al, 2009;Hume, 2011;Li et al, 2011;Muthaiyan et al, 2011;Jacob and Pescatore, 2012;Juneja et al, 2012;Herrera et al, 2013). In organic food production, several biological agents such as bacteriophage, bacteriocins, botanicals, prebiotics, and probiotics have been proposed or in some cases actually implemented for limiting foodborne pathogens either in livestock production or meat processing (O'Bryan et al, 2008b;Sirsat et al, 2009;Ricke et al, 2012;Van Loo et al, 2012b).…”

“…Consequently, there has always been great potential for new antimicrobial discoveries based on collecting and characterizing traditional medicinal plants throughout the world (Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, 1995). These botanicals have been examined as feed additives to improve feed characteristics, increase digestion and performance if the animal is being fed these compounds, or to enhance desirable characteristics of the meat produced (Jacob and Pescatore, 2012). Likewise, based on health, economic, and environmental issues, natural plant extracts have been promoted as a safer choice as alternatives for synthetic antimicrobials (Burt, 2004;Jo et al, 2004;Callaway et al, 2011a;Muthaiyan et al, 2011;Bajpai et al, 2012).…”

Assessment of Gastrointestinal Microflora in Pasture Raised Chickens Fed Two Commercial Prebiotics

“…Prebiotics have been used as alternative feed additives to improve gut health as well as for reducing pathogen colonization in various animal production systems including poultry [1][2][3][4]. Prebiotics include nondigestible carbohydrate dietary additives and other biological components that stimulate the growth of one or more bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract that are beneficial to the host [5].…”

“…In general, prebiotics are mixed as additives with feeds during the milling process so that all birds receive similar levels of prebiotics over the entire growth cycle. Prebiotics can be utilized preferentially by beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria species [4,[6][7][8], which leads to the production of lactic acid and Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) both of which can be inhibitory to pathogens [3,[9][10][11][12]. In addition, the presence of prebiotics can lead to the maintenance of a normal microbial population [10] which in turn can potentially inhibit the colonization of pathogenic bacteria through competitive inhibition [8,13].…”