Effect of probiotic consortium on level and mechanism of intestine function.

摘要

A probiotic consortium or direct-fed microbial (DFM) is a live-microbial food supplement that improves health and performance, in broilers and other animals. They may have potential as an alternative to supplemental feed antibiotics use within the poultry industry to prevent enteric disease. Mechanisms by which DFM operate, collectively called "competitive exclusion", includes spatial exclusion, micro-environmental alterations, production of antimicrobial substances and epithelial barrier integrity. The majority of recent research suggests the likelihood of a small but additive series of beneficial changes from the animal's exposure to DFM. The interactions between intestinal microbiota, the gut epithelium, and the immune system are important in the competitive exclusion process.;Data presented in this study suggest that DFM increase metabolic efficiency via changes in intestinal physiology and metabolism, especially when compared to the traditional feed supplement prophylactic, salinomycin. Also, the effects of DFM on ileal glucose and proline absorption and their relationship to gastrointestinal energy expenditures were examined. Increases in the efficiency of nutrient absorption and decreases in intestinal fermentation with DFM may contribute to previously observed decreases in energy expenditures; however, these contributions are relatively minor, indicating that other physiological mechanisms are involved. The effects of DFM on intestinal histomorphometrics and micro-architecture were examined. Since DFM colonization can prevent attachment of the pathogens to the gastrointestinal epithelium, spatial relationships between the gastrointestinal bacteria and gastrointestinal epithelium, described in this study, confirm previous assumptions about the ability of DFM to physically exclude the colonization of bacterial pathogens, preventing enteric disease. In summary, it is likely that the beneficial effects of DFM are the result of the summation of a complex, multi-variate series of alterations in gut microbial and whole body metabolism.