The gut microflora and probiotics can impact stress and behavior

Relation between stress and stress ameliorating effects of probiotics has been dealt interestingly in this article. We should encourage poultry farmers to consider probiotic as on of the useful supplement and it should be made affordable for regular usage.

Heat stress in tropics, one of the major problems that affect animals, their nutririon, immunity, reproduction, growth and other production potentials. Of course controlling the enviroment is not the optimum solution, but looking for probiotics as alternative I believe it is another option. Perhaps more research is needed to show the significance about the use of probiotics. If the author has any relevant research in such matter, please send me some.
Thanks in advance and hope to hear from you soon.

Dr. Nuha Hamed Talib Ismail

In broiler farming, the very first few days of chicks are very critical. Stress factors like transportation, improper brooding, early use of antibiotics, etc, badly affects chicks performance leading to a weak and unhealthy flock. Therefore, use of probiotics in the early days of chicks is a must to get a best performance from a flock.

Dr.Saadat Ali Changezi

Dear Dr Talib,

Thank you for your comments. Indeed, we have few data abour heat stress in ruminants and the use of probiotic yeast. I can suggest that you see the article already published on engormix on the subject:https://www.engormix.com/e_articles_view.asp?art=618&AREA=GDL
Concerning poultry, we have various positive results with probioitc Bacteria in broiler and layers,in intensive farming in India, Egypt, Italy... I can send you some data directly.
if you wish to have further information or scientific data, please contact me.

Probiotics are an excellent concept, but still lack consistent results even in controlled conditions. We still have to endeavor to learn how to choose a probiotic that will consistently perform in conditions prevailing, nevertheless probiotics have to be chicken specific strains and be given continuously dosed for from day one of chicken (broiler) life. All strains don't work across the board.

Probiotics and/or prebiotics may be a useful tools for improve gut health, although constant results are lacking. Many factors can affect the response to probiotics and prebiotics most important in the hygienic condition in the farm, time of application, dosage, type of birds and goal. I think we should look to the synergism between the prebiotics and the probiotics at this time. Perhaps a synergistic effects of both could replace the antibiotics. The role of probiotics/prebiotics as stress relief needs more and further details and intensive research.

Dear Sir,

We raise Cobb and Ross broiler chicks, without the usage of antibiotics and anticoccidials. These green (not organic, since the feed is not organic) chicks are raised till 40 days of age with no much health problems. We use probiotic as prevention through all cycle and acidifiers with proven antibacterial activity in case we need to treat some intestinal disorder. Of course we have strict biosecurity. I will be more than happy to share info with all of you.
With best regards,

Ben Shimon

The concepts of probiotics known for several centuries before they have now gained significance, with people turning from conventional antibiotics to probiotics. There has been several generations of improved probiotics like the first beeing the lactic acid bacteria, and the bifido bacterium, etc, then came in the fungi and the yeast, now we have the spore forming bacteria, and we have still more to come. But what was best in the current discussion was the re-understanding the cross talk between GUT and the Brain. I too work in this area and am very excited to know the renewed interset in this area. Kindly offer your suggestions in this regard.
With Regards,

Dr. Suraj

We have hnown that the probiotic application at day-old of age is being considered as one of the tools in Salmonella control.
Besides, some of the poultry profrssionals advocate Probiotic treatment to replenish the gutmicroflora, followed by antibiotic treatment. Is any one obtained satisfactory results? Please share your views and experience.

For my part Probiotic trials are positive at 50% (very good) but also negative at 50%... you see what I mean... It is an old concept with various handicaps (to jump)... inconstance quality product, pH instability, & endogenious germs acceptation... Probiotics are heads or tails... good luck !

We all are looking for the alternates to common antibiotics.Probiotics seems to be quite promising.But we are not able to depend on them as we depend on antibiotics,because we have opposite results in variuos trials.Still probiotics have not gained the universal acceptance.Some work need to be done in field, because alternate to antibiotic is a need.

I tend to agree with Mr. Philippe Gossart on this matter.

Even though probiotics are theoretically beneficial for the animal, there are a lot of factors at play in the field. Most of these factors cannot be controlled by human intervention. One example is the continuous battle between pathogenic and beneficial bacteria within the intestinal microbiota. This delicate and inverse relationship is also known as competitive exclusion (CE), where a increase in the beneficial/saprophytic bacterial population would lead to a decrease in the pathogenic bacterial numbers, and vice versa. In stressful conditions or when there is disease challenge, CE tends to favour the intestinal pathogens, such as E. coli and Salmonella. This is even more pronounced in immuno-compromised animals. That is why such bacteria are called opportunistic pathogens - they are ubiquitous and exist in the intestines in small and harmless numbers, but multiply rapidly in such critical situations to populous numbers that can cause intestinal disease, of which diarrhoea is usually the first clinical sign.

Therefore, it is my personal opinion that for the case of probiotics, sometimes they work, and sometimes they dont...and results are always variable. From my experience, they usually fail especially at times of dire and utmost need, which of course are during times of stress or disease challenge. During such critical periods, I would recommend an additive with more potent antibacterial properties, such as oregano essential oil, where killing efficacy is guaranteed and development of bacterial resistance is not possible. Oregano oil has been shown to improve the numbers of beneficial bacteria within the microbiota, such as Lactobacillus spp, while easily killing pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and Clostridium perfringens. The result is a balanced intestinal microbiota and healthier intestines, where absorption of nutrients from the feed can be maximised.

thank you for these added informations about probiotics
it will be valuable in poultry industry
Best Regards

Yes I also agree that probiotics are much useful for stress management. We have tried our product Spectra-DFM (which provides 5x107 cfu per gram of feed) against AGPs during the month of APR and MAY (Peak summer in India). It has performed better than AGPs and proved even to replace AGPs. It i sdue to the high concentration in the feed and 13 different essential organisms.

If their is a correlation between stress and gut physiology, altering the the gut microbiota and the immunity level of the bird. Also if their are specific probiotic preparations playing specific role in animal response to stress. Then, in the tropics, the greatest stress to efficient poultry production is heat stress. What is the relationship between heat stress, gut physiology and gut microbiota?Is their any research result(s) on probiotics that will reduce the effect(s) of heat stress on animaal production?

Perhaps ruminants due to their highy evolved symbiosis with rumen mciroorganisms may give light on other species. In ruminants the condition called ACIDOSIS clearly offers a particular valuable scenario for gut and microbial interaction examination. What we have learned is that ruminal flora is highly changing and very related to diet and in particular to certain physical -chemical parameters of the rumen such as pH, volatuile fatty acid production (salmonella and E. Coli are naturally very low levels in rumens) mode of feed intake, intake level and others.
Contrary to popular belief the rumen is an open system capable of population succesions and in may cases it is the "invasory" flora the cause of disease.