Matters needing attention in poultry breeding: strengthening the healthy feeding of poultry and the development trend of antibiotic substitutes

In recent years, scientists have found that poor intestinal bacteria are related to many diseases, so how to increase intestinal probiotics has become a topic for scientists to study. In fact, intestinal health is also very important to livestock. In order to reduce the use of antibiotics, recently, the research team of the Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science of Ilan University has been actively studying It was found that the use of compound bacillus fermentation metabolites could enhance the resistance of pigs to intestinal diseases and replace intestinal antibiotics.

Digestive tract disease is a high incidence disease of livestock, especially pigs, and it is also an "invisible killer" of safe pig raising. Traditional pig farmers treat pigs with antibiotics, but this may cause pigs to develop drug resistance.

Taiwan's pig-raising industry is developed, and pig-raising technology is also quite advanced, and it has made good achievements in breed improvement or disease resistance. However, limited by land resources, over-intensive breeding, coupled with the hot and humid climate of the island, the crowded environment is easy to breed germs, and it is also easy to infect growing pigs with respiratory and intestinal bacteria.

Fermentation metabolites of compound Bacillus

  has the potential to replace antibiotics to solve the problem of drug resistance.

In order to reduce the use of antibiotics, with the development of agricultural science and technology, there are many ways to enhance the resistance of pigs, especially in the field of animal nutrition. the development of new feed additives, such as microorganisms with special functions, is the main axis of biotechnology research and development.

Like the human intestinal tract, improving the intestinal microflora also helps to enhance the health of pigs. In response to the global demand for animal products without antibiotic residues and to reduce environmental protection problems, probiotic products are used as feed additives to stabilize the intestinal flora of animals, improve intestinal health to reduce digestive tract diseases or enhance animal immunity, so that various body functions of animals can be comprehensively improved. To achieve the effect of prevention and health care.

Recently, the research team of the Department of Biotechnology and Animal Science of Ilan University, led by Professor Zheng Yongxiang, began the research on "using compound bacillus fermentation metabolites to enhance the resistance of pigs to intestinal diseases" in 2012, applying for a plan in 2014, hoping to develop compound bacillus fermentation and metabolites to identify as zinc oxide substitutes to solve the problem of weaning dysentery in piglets and to control the new PED epidemic in piglets. Reduce the infection of envelope virus, and replace antibiotics to control the pathogenic intestinal dysentery of piglets, increase the survival rate of piglets, and ensure the safety of animal products.

In this regard, Zheng Yongxiang further said, "many recent studies have focused on intestinal health and optimal immune function." For example, enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) occurs mostly in newborn and weaned piglets. The main symptoms are dysentery, cyanosis in ear wings and limbs, sunken eye sockets, loss of appetite or not eating, neurosis and respiratory distress. The lesions are also characterized by relaxation or thinning of the small intestine and filled with watery fluid, bleeding in the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, edema of the large intestine, swelling and bleeding of lymph nodes, interstitial pneumonia and meningeal congestion, and the incidence is between 30% and 80%. The fatality rate is 6.6% and 100%, which occurs in all seasons. However, it was found that ETEC had developed resistance to Colistin and Gentamicin in drug susceptibility tests, while ETEC isolated from the Department of Veterinary Medicine of National Taiwan University also found multiple drug resistance.

In addition, the amount of zinc oxide added by weaning pigs to reduce diarrhea after weaning has also been reduced from 3000ppm to 130ppm. The revision of the law is mainly for the consideration of environment and food safety, and declares the trend of the application of antibiotics and zinc oxide substitutes in livestock and poultry breeding.

In order to break through this problem, the research team of Ilan University inadvertently found that bacillus fermentation metabolites have the development potential of zinc oxide substitutes. "Bacillus is classified as a recognized safe (GRAS) strain, so it is allowed to be used in the food industry, there are many commercial products can be used in human nutrition additives and livestock and poultry feed additives. Through Bacillus vegetative cells and sporobacteria, the immune system can be stimulated in the gastrointestinal tract. " Zheng Yongxiang further added, "in the past, we have successfully produced lipopeptide Cyclolipopeptide from compound bacillus, and confirmed its structural formula by HPLC and LC/MS to understand that surfactin can replace zinc oxide in intestinal convergence and reduce inflammation, and then conducted in vitro tests on the anti-PEDV ability of lipopeptide to evaluate the effects of different doses of lipopeptide at different time on the ability of green monkey cells infected with PEDV. At the same time, pig experiments were also conducted to evaluate the ability of lipopeptide produced by this probiotic to resist PEDV infection and damage in pigs, and pathological examination was carried out to evaluate the safety of lipopeptide produced by this probiotic in pigs for a long time. "

Industry, government and school join hands with technology transfer to speed up development and application and grasp market business opportunities

The results showed that compared with the control group, the four-week-old weight gain of weaned piglets was significantly improved by the use of bacterial fermentation, the clinical symptoms and daily excretion of PEDV+ lipopeptide group were slighter than those of PEDV group, and the lactobacilli in IgG and fecal bacteria were significantly better than those in high zinc oxide group.

Although there has been a breakthrough in technology, Zheng Yongxiang said that there is still considerable room for efforts in the development and application of compound bacillus fermentation metabolites. "in addition to larger-scale field tests, we also need more money to invest in equipment. Fermentation instruments alone have to invest millions, but there are unlimited business opportunities in this market. Production, government and learning work hand in hand to speed up the development process, and it can also expand from livestock to poultry. At the same time, it is also in line with the international trend, this microbial preparation will be widely used in healthy livestock and poultry breeding, to provide consumers with more safe and assured livestock and poultry products. "

Related information

For more details on the R & D results of this project, please contact Mr. he of Agricultural Science and Technology Research Institute, a legal person of the consortium, Tel: 03-5185049, email: 1072086@mail.atri.org.tw