Today, poultry and other livestock are often exposed to a stressful environment. This leads to an imbalance in their gut flora. Consequently, they suffer from health conditions such as poor weight gain and persistent diarrhoea. There have also been cases of high mortality rates in animals for these reasons. Various studies have indicated that probioticare instrumental in reinstating and maintaining the balance of gut flora in animals.
Probiotics
Probiotics are live micro-organisms that improve the health and performance of poultry animals. They support the digestive health and gastrointestinal flora of animals also boosting their immune system and contribute to a diverse population of useful bacteria in their digestive system.
Poultry of all ages can be fed probiotics daily to help them maintain a healthy digestive system. However, probiotics provide better results during stress situations such as hatching, vaccination, unknown surroundings, changes in food, water and temperature, etc. Probiotics also work well after antibiotic treatment.
Bacteria play a crucial role as probiotics in animal nutrition. Bacteria enable poultry animals to extract energy and cycle biomolecules. One of such beneficial bacteria is Bacillus.
Bacillus Bacteria
Bacillus are considered spore-forming bacteria. A spore is a tough, dormant, and non-reproductive structure that certain bacteria like Bacillus produce. It is a multi-layered protective structure composed of several proteins and provides resistance to environmental stress. It reaches a metabolically active state and multiplies when it reaches the gastrointestinal tract of poultry animals.
Spores are also known as endospores. They grow in unfavourable conditions such as extreme temperature, starvation, and extreme pH. They are resistant to heat, radiation, and chemical reactions for an extended period. Hence, they are tougher than other micro-organisms.
Importance of Bacillus Bacteria in Animal Nutrition
Bacillus have a tendency to populate rapidly. This means that they will not allow the growth of bad bacteria. Their physiologic characteristics enable them to produce antibiotics, metabolites, and antibiotics which are necessary for poultry animals.
Bacillus strains are useful in bioremediation. They can also decrease nitrogenous waste. Both these factors together improve the environmental conditions.
Optimized Enzymes Production for Feed Digestion
Probiotics are nature’s enzyme factory.Ensuring the adequate quantity of probiotics in animal diet can support to ensure proper digestion and use the complete feed energy for animal growth and overall development. Probiotics produce the right amount of the right enzyme inside the gut of the chicken.
This ultra-efficient digestion process is what improves feed conversion in the bird, they are more easily absorbing nutrients to use for growth from the same feed they always consume.
Old technologies use live, active cultures like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium that are sensitive to stomach acid. This causes a sizeable percentage of them to die in the stomach before they reach the small intestine. Even if they do survive, they are weakened and take the entire length of the small intestine before they can begin growing and provide little to no benefits.
Conclude, the use of Bacillus bacteria as superior probiotics in poultry animal feed is on the rise. In the coming years, it will become a prominent health ingredient for poultry animals.
About the writer:
Pratap Munde
Director of Sales
NCH Life Sciences
With more than a decade of experience in agriculture inputs organization, Pratap Munde is associated with NCH Life Sciences, a global leader in probiotic technology with a vision of developing superior technologies for animal healthcare in the probiotic field through achievements in biological solutions.
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