PARTNER FEATURE ▶▶▶
Controlling gut pathogens with probiotics
The toolbox for pig producers to control post-weaning diarrhoea will get a bit emptier soon – at least in Europe, when use of zinc oxide at therapeutic levels is forbidden. In the search for alternatives to avoid dysbiosis at weaning, lactic acid probiotics could play a role.
BY LENA RAFF, CHR. HANSEN I
n recent years, focus has increased on the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in piglets and the role it plays in their performance and health. Research has in- vestigated how to keep the microbiota in balance so that
instability, known as dysbiosis, does not occur. The microbiota in the GIT of a pig comprises hundreds of dif- ferent species of micro-organisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. These micro-organisms can be either commensal or pathogenic in nature. While commensal micro-organisms live in a symbiotic relationship with the pig, pathogenic mi- cro-organisms can cause inflammation and damage to the GIT if conditions allow them to proliferate quickly, creating dysbiosis. This often happens around weaning where the mi- crobiota is not stable. The multiple stressors the piglet is ex- posed to – such as a change in feed and environment – lead to a microbiota that is out of balance and where pathogens can proliferate, which may result in diarrhoea.
Alpha- and beta-diversity Probiotics, such as Lactobacilli, have been used in piglet diets for decades and are well recognised as having a positive im- pact on intestinal health, keeping the GIT in balance and in- creasing the performance of these young animals. They work through different pathways such as modulation of the micro- biota, pathogen inhibition and adhesion to the intestinal cells. “Diversity” is a word that is often associated with the mi- crobiota, and high diversity in GIT microbes is referred to as being positive, indicating good health.
30 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 7, 2020
Probiotics could be part of the overall solution to control or prevent post-weaning diarrhoea.
The diversity of the microbiota is often described as either: • Alpha-diversity, describing the diversity within a sample and informing about the number of individual types of bac- teria in a sample; or
• Beta-diversity, describing the diversity between samples or microbial communities. When the probiotic strain Enterococcus faecium (NCIMB 11181), also called Lactiferm (Chr. Hansen), is added to the diet of weaned piglets, the alpha-diversity of the gut microbi- ota was significantly increased showing a higher number of beneficial bacteria and an inhibition of potential pathogens, such as Escherichia, compared to the microbiota in the GIT of piglets fed a standard diet without this probiotic strain. In addition, when looking at beta-diversity, this probiotic strain was clearly able to modulate the entire microbial community in the GIT of the piglets to a more favourable one.
Supporting commensal bacteria Probiotics support commensal bacteria and make life hard for the pathogens, thus maintaining a healthy balance in the GIT. That was shown in a study testing the inhibitory effect of the same Enterococcus faecium strain on an E. coli (F18) pathogen (see Figure 1). Some pathogens, like E. coli, adhere to and colonise the epi- thelia of the small intestine, creating a predisposition for
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