Hi,

Use of probiotics imparts a number of benefits to pigs, including improved dgestion (i.e. better digestive efficiency and improved nutritional status) and protection from intestinal infections (e.g. enterotoxigenic E. coli). The prebiotics work hand-in-glove with the probiotics to optimise the effect. The porcine digestive system is relatively similar to the human digestive system, so its no surprise to see many probiotics being used that are based on familiar lactic acid bacteria. However Bacillus-based probiotics are attracting interest because the robustness of the spores imparts some practical advanatages in terms of ability to formulate into feed (eg pelleted feed), stability on-shelf and in prapared feeds. Like you, I would expect that the beneficial effects of probiotics & prebiotics would improve fertility and reproductive performance in both boars and sows, but I don't know of any specific research in this areas. We've done work in horses which showed a massive improvement in transfer of passive immunity to newborn foals when the mares were treated with probiotics in late-stage gestation, and we'd expect a similar result in any mammalian species.

with best regards...........Kevin.

Hello, Kevin

I warmly appreciate your comments on the topic. I noticed that several studied have been carried out on the use of probiotics in animal. However, on prebiotics, I am completely lost. Could you help on the available prebiotics that can be used in pig production. I have no doubt that there are limited information on the useful effect of probiotics in boar and sow reproduction. I am also of the view that since it plays an important role in nutrition, then it may also affect the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis thereby influencing reproductive activities in animals. Reports by Fuller has also indicated the possible transfer of passive immunity from dam to piglets. Presently my team is designing a study to investigate the effect of pre-and probiotics on male reproduction. Can anyone provide us with the Bacillus-based probiotics for use in our study? Thanks Regards,.......Machebe

Hi Machebe,

Presently a lot of work is underway investigating the science behind prebiotics, mostly directed towards the human market. As I'm sure you know, the prebiotic materials are resistant to digestion in the upper digestive tract, and so pass into the large intestine where the majority of the microflora reside. This property establishes them as materials related to dietary fibre. In the first instance, polymers of fructose derived from Jerusalem Artichoke or Chickory were used. The native material from these plants is inulin, but shorter chain fructo-oligosaccharides (often derived by processing of inulin) are also used - the shorter chain materials are more soluble.

The reasoning is that most bacteria cannot hydrolyse these materials but beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacteria can do so. In effect, the philosophy is to selectively-feed beneficial bacteria. A range of other digestion-resistant materials have been promoted as prebiotics, including resistant starch (derived from maize), polydextrose, galacto-oligosaccharides, mannan oligosaccharides (MOS, derived from yeast) and even metabolites produced in-vitro by Bifidobacterium under culture conditions where sugar is in excess (i.e. Bifido storage carbohydrates).

I think you would be wise to start from the practical end - what materials are readily-available to farmers in your region, and are there any at an affordable price? You can be creative in seeking your sources e.g. Wikipaedia lists the following:

Plants that contain high concentrations of inulin include:

Elecampane (Inula helenium)

Coneflower Echinacea spp

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Wild Yam (Dioscorea spp.)

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

Chicory (Cichorium intybus)

Jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus)

Burdock (Arctium lappa)

Costus Saussurea lappa

Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris

Onion (Allium cepa)

Garlic (Allium sativum)

Agave (Agave spp.)

Leopard's-Bane Arnica montana

Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius spp.)

Camas (Camassia spp.)

Bear in mind that prebiotics have an optimum dose, too much can cause problems. In humans, signs of excess consumption of prebiotics include bloating and flatulence, hardly desirable. Another example - pasture may contain large amounts of inulin and inulin-like material when seasonal (and some other) conditions prevail. Under these circumstances a horse can consume up to 5kg of inulin in one day's grazing and this can trigger severe digestive disturbances, sometimes with unforeseen consequences, such as laminitis (crippling inflammation of the tissue anchoring the hoof to the foot). Also bear in mind that if your source is unrefined, you need to consider the potential effects of the other components, some might have detrimental effects in large doses. For example, large amounts of garlic are harmful for dogs and horses (causing anaemia), yet small amounts are beneficial. In reality, the harmful doses are very large, far more than one of these animals would ingest under normal circumstances.

For selection of probiotics, once again I'd start by looking at what's readily-available in your local market and at what cost.

Hope this helps............Kevin.

Thanks Kevin, You have been of great assistance. I will consider the possibility of using either onion, garlic or wild yam which are readily available. As per the probiotics, I will make further inquiry. I don't mind any further information on the use of the listed plant materials were necessary.

Regards....... Machebe

Thanks Machebe. I'd suggest that at this early stage don't give up yet on the idea of tracking-down a more-refined source of prebiotic, there's a fair amount of commerce in them and some might be available. They have the advantage of higher purity, so they contain less potentially-hazardous excipient materials and will offer much greater consistency from batch to batch.

Reverting to discussion of use of unrefined sources, the list of plants from Wikipaedia was for sources of inulin, there's also resistant starch from maize and MOS from yeast cell-walls, for instance.

Wikipaedia gives the following examples of naturally-occurring resistant starch, who knows, there may be an important new source of resistant starch or inulin growing in a field nearby waiting to be discovered.

Food Serving Size Resistant Starch (grams)

Navy beans 1/2 cup cooked 9.8

Banana, raw 1 medium, peeled 4.7

Cold potato 1/2” diameter 3.2

Lentils 1/2 cup cooked 2.5

Cold pasta 1 cup 1.9

Pearl barley 1/2 cup cooked 1.6

Oatmeal 1 cup cooked 0.7

Wholegrain bread 2 slices 0.5

with best regards,

Kevin.

Machebe, there's a short article about feeding chicory to pigs in the latest "Pig Progress" Vol 27, No. 2 (2011) p8. The article summarises a long-term Dutch study presented at AgroMek in 2009 and focuses on boar taint, concluding that feeding chickory resulted in the meat from entire males having less boar taint due to inhibition of formation of skatole.

The intestinal flora were also found to be altered, resulting in fewer intestinal parasites and lower rates of swine dysentery and Lawsonia

Best regards...............Kevin.

Kevin, I am encouraged by your assistance and comments. I will check the article immediately on the web. Yesterday I read an article titled 'Prebiotic content of foods'. It was stated that to get an average MINIMUM daily requirement of 6g of prebiotic per day, one need about 34.9g of raw garlic, 69.8g of raw onion, 120g of raw wheat bran etc. I guess with these rough estimates, one could calculate the amount of these products that will be added to the diets of animals to observe a specific effect on animals. I am still searching literature to be well informed before I go to the field. Best wishes..........Machebe

Kevin,

I cant find a link to the cited article. I don,t mind a copy or link to the article mentioned. I need to see the methodology as a guide. Thanks...................Machebe

Machebe, if you contact the suppliers of inulin and resistant starches they will for sure be able to give you information about the required doses of these materials for pigs (this will be for their highly-refined products). You can use this as a guide to extrapolate to natural sources of these materials, based on the estimated content of inulin or resistant starch. Likewise the yeast manufacturers will be able to give you some guidance about supplementation rates for MOS.

Best regards..............Kevin.

Machebe, a scanned copy of the article has been sent to your email address. Best regards...............Kevin.

Alberto, it is true that "different" doesn't automatically mean "better", it depends of course on the nature of the difference. In the case of this short article about pigs the changes to the gut flora weren't specified, however there were a number of secondary indicators provided, and these showed a positive response (less swine dysentery and Lawsonia) which the authors attributed to improved gut flora. No doubt Machebe will find all the details when he looks-up the detailed publications. It was also reported that there were fewer intestinal parasites, an indicator of improved immunity - we saw the same thiing recently in a trial of probiotics in free-range laying hens. Best regards.............Kevin.

As far as I understand, improvement of reproductive performance per se is not possible to be enhanced by the use of probiotics...but could be a via media of enhanced overall health.....