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Could probiotics be the panacea alternative to the use of antimicrobials in livestock diets?

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Probiotics are most frequently derived from the natural microbiota of healthy animals. These bacteria and their metabolic products are viewed as nutritional tools for promoting animal health and productivity, disease prevention and therapy, and food safety in an era defined by increasingly widespread antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens. In contemporary livestock production, antimicrobial usage is indispensable for animal welfare, and employed to enhance growth and feed efficiency. Given the importance of antimicrobials in both human and veterinary medicine, their effective replacement with direct-fed microbials or probiotics could help reduce antimicrobial use, perhaps restoring or extending the usefulness of these precious drugs against serious infections. Thus, probiotic research in livestock is rapidly evolving, aspiring to produce local and systemic health benefits on par with antimicrobials. Although many studies have clearly demonstrated the potential of probiotics to positively affect animal health and inhibit pathogens, experimental evidence suggests that probiotics’ successes are modest, conditional, strain-dependent, and transient. Here, we explore current understanding, trends, and emerging applications of probiotic research and usage in major livestock species, and highlight successes in animal health and performance.

Keywords: antibiotics; direct-fed microbial; livestock; microbiome; mycotoxins

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: October 14, 2019

More about this publication?
  • Beneficial Microbes is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a specific area of focus: the promotion of the science of microbes beneficial to the health and wellbeing of man and animal. The journal contains original research papers and critical reviews in all areas dealing with beneficial microbes in both the small and large intestine, together with opinions, a calendar of forthcoming beneficial microbes-related events and book reviews. The journal takes a multidisciplinary approach and focuses on a broad spectrum of issues, including safety aspects of pro- & prebiotics, regulatory aspects, mechanisms of action, health benefits for the host, optimal production processes, screening methods, (meta)genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, host and bacterial physiology, application, and role in health and disease in man and animal. Beneficial Microbes is intended to serve the needs of researchers and professionals from the scientific community and industry, as well as those of policy makers and regulators.
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