The probiotics Turval 6, Turval Swine and Yea-Sac1026 have nonetheless maintained a good overall fermentation potential, which should allow for a better regulating activity of the intestinal microflora than the other products compared.
Prof. Piero Susmel, Prof. B. Stefanon
Università degli Studi di Udine
Dipartimento di Produzione Animale
The increased sensitivity in regards to natural products and the necessity, imposed by norms and economical needs, to diminish the “medicalization” of breeding farms, make it obligatory, on the part of the research sectors working on the exploitation of feeds for zootechnical use and animal production, to conduct a careful scientific examination of the physiological and biological behavior of the microorganisms commonly called probiotics.
In fact, the appearance and the increase in bacteria strains dangerous for man and animals and resistant to therapies has been widely attributed to a widespread use of antibiotics as dietary additives. This negative secondary effect has pushed the legislator to set more and more restrictive limits on the utilization of these substances and impose research to study experimental protocols that also consider companies’ needs to contain costs, which have often become excessive for a rational economic budget, due precisely to the use of these antibiotic substances.
Probiotics are vital microorganisms able to give benefit to its host through the re-balancing of the intestinal microflora. This definition, given by R. Fuller regarding human medicine, is most certainly extensible to the zootechnical sector. Probiotics are often commonly called “lactic yeasts” and their positive properties in the diet of animals and humans have been known for a long time, even though only recently their physiological action has begun to be scientifically evaluated and analyzed.
In fact, it has been long noted that the positive characteristics of these microorganisms, which favor the well-being and health of animals, are closely connected with the capacity of fermentation of organic substrata, with the production of various metabolites, among which acetic acid and, better yet, lactic acid.
The Department of Animal Production Sciences, having determined the interest of further scientific investigation on the physiological and biological processes of probiotics and of the economical aspects of the market for the use of commercial products which contain these organisms, tested a number of probiotics in commerce, comparing them with one another and with brewer’s yeast, traditionally used for animals because it’s a low cost supplement and derived from the brewing industry.
The study of digestive and metabolic processes in vivo (directly on the animals) is not easily interpreted, due to the numerous factors that characterize the gastric and intestinal digestive process including the diversity of species and breeds, the ingredients of the diet, the chemical and nutritional characteristics of the ration and the method of breeding. The same factors interfere with the secretion activity of the enzymes and on the motility of the intestine, and, therefore, influence the fermentation activity of the microorganisms. For these motives, it was estimated to be more useful, for the aim of comparison between products, to test the probiotics in vitro, analyzing the fermentative potential and the capacity of the microorganisms to produce metabolites contained in the products compared, rather than using the in vivo method, based on the “final” results obtained in animals.
In order to reduce the dietary and breeding variables and to be able to describe the phenomena of interest, laboratory methods were developed in vitro, which represent simplified but more exemplary models of what happens in vivo.
Product
|
Company
|
Microorganism
|
CFU/g
|
|
|
declared
|
|
Turval Swine
|
Turval Labs
|
Kluyveromyces f B0399
|
>2 x 106
|
Turval 6
|
Turval Labs
|
Kluyveromyces f B0399
|
>5 x 106
|
Entero
|
Stamina
|
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
|
|
Biosprint
|
Prosol
|
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
|
|
Equiferm
|
Agrolabo
|
Kluyveromyces fragilis Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces kurlsbergiensis
|
|
Yea-Sacc1026
|
Alltech
|
Saccharomyces cerevisiae1026
|
100 x 106
|
Lievito di birra
|
|
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
|
|
|
|
Product
|
|||||||
|
|
Turval Swine
|
Turval 6
|
Entero
|
Biosprint
|
Equiferm
|
Yea-Sacc
|
Brewer’s yeast
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
lactic acid
|
|
2152A
|
3534A
|
109C
|
344B
|
94C
|
354B
|
214B
|
|
(mg/l)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**
|
**
|
ns
|
*
|
ns
|
ns
|
*
|
|
Figure 2. Profile of fermentation (lactic acid) of the products examined
|
|
Product
|
|||||||
|
|
Turval Swine
|
Turval 6
|
Entero
|
Biosprint
|
Equiferm
|
Yea-Sacc
|
Brewer yeast
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
acetic acid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
+
|
|
3483
|
4750
|
1309
|
555
|
115
|
927
|
330
|
|
lactic acid
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(mg/l)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Product
|
|||||||
|
|
Turval Swine
|
Turval 6
|
Entero
|
Biosprint
|
Equiferm
|
Yea-Sacc
|
Brewer’s yeast
|
|
Acetic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
+
|
|
1708
|
1650
|
1072
|
190
|
867
|
1103
|
295
|
|
lactic acids
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(mg/l)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Turval Swine
|
Biosprint
|
Yea-Sacc
|
Brewer yeast
|
Average italian market price
US$/Kg
|
7.40
|
2,60
|
8,75
|
6,25
|
Figure 5. Production of organic acids (acetic + lactic acid) per 0,5 US$ of product.