Influence of a ProbioticEnterococcus FaeciumStrain on Selected Bacterial Groups in the Small Intestine of Growing Turkey Poults

Abstract

A feeding trial was carried out with turkey poults, which were fed a diet containing 10(10) viable probiotic E. faecium NCIB 10415 cells/kg feed. Samples of the intestinal tract were analyzed for lactate, colony forming units of total anaerobic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, enterobacteria and enterococci. Furthermore, metabolic activity of total eubacterial, lactobacilli and enterococci was recorded in selected RNA-extracts with specific ribosomal RNA oligonucleotide probes. Animals fed the probiotic diet showed continously increasing lactate concentrations throughout the sampling period up to day 42 of life. No correlation was found for colony forming units (cfu) of lactic acid bacteria, but metabolic activity of lactobacilli showed very close relation to continously increasing lactate concentrations. Throughout the feeding trial, enterococci in the control group continously increased to a maximum of 10(4) cfu/g wet weight, but 10-fold higher enterococci cfu were generally found in the treated group. However, rRNA content as measure for metabolic activity showed a drastic decline in both groups after high metabolic activities on day 7. This study shows that E. faecium NCIB 10415 (E. faecium SF68) stimulates other lactic acid bacteria in the small intestine, especially lactobacilli.

New probiotic strain Lactobacillus fermentum AD1 and its effect in Japanese quail

“…Probably, pH value depends on a quantitative proportion of L(+) lactate isomer and D(-) lactate isomer produced by the applied strain. Vahjen et al (2002) also found a significant increase of lactic acid content in the jejunum and ileum of turkeys after the application of Enterococcum faecium. The study of Jin et al (1998) showed that lactobacilli added to the diet of broilers increased the concentrations of volatile fatty acids in the ileum and caecum and decreased the pH values in the caecum.…”

Isolation and identification of cadmium- and lead-resistant lactic acid bacteria for application as metal removing probiotic

“…Herranz et al (2001) observed among LAB including some E. faecium strains as nonpathogenic with an ability to produce lactic acid and bacteriocin. In animal management, E. faecium have received more attention as probiotic preparations, such as, in pigs (Macha et al 2004;Scharek et al 2005;Taras et al 2006) and poultry due to having immune system stimulating properties in host and protect animals from gastrointestinal diseases (Taras et al 2006;Vahjen et al 2002). Since E. faecium Pb12 strains survived in the fish intestine without exhibiting the pathogenicity, further experiments were carried out using only this LAB strain among five.…”

Effects of Enterococcus faecium and Bacillus cereus var. toyoi on the morphology of the intestinal mucous membrane in piglets

“…The use of probiotics for the prevention and treatment of diseases of the intestinal tract in humans (Fuller, 1989;Gorbach, 2000;Marteau & Seksik, 2001;O'Sullivan et al, 2005) and animals (Reuter, 2001;Ghabdan, 2002), especially pigs (Herich et al, 1999;Melin & Wallgren, 2002;Jadamus et al, 2002;Vahjen et al, 2002;Scharek et al, 2005) has become increasingly popular with the knowledge of problems associated with antibiotic use as feed additives (Bengmark, 2000). The benefit of probiotics on the host's intestinal tract is well established (Bocourt et al, 2004;Gibson, 2004;Huang et al, 2004;Marteau et al, 2004), however our knowledge about their mode of action and their influence on the morphology of the intestinal tract is very limited (Jahn, et al, 1996;Görke, 2000;Baum et al, 2002).…”