Development of a multi-strain Bacillus probiotic for poultry production

Abstract

The global demand for poultry products is continuously growing, therefore the poultry industry requires fast growth and high stocking densities to enhance production efficiency. These conditions impact negatively on chicken health driving the indiscriminate use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs), which has resulted in an increase in the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases due to antibiotic resistance of poultry pathogens. This has led to restrictions on AGP use in poultry production in many countries. This coupled with consumer preference for more organic food, has created a need for the industry to explore alternative technologies for poultry production. Probiotics can offer a solution to these challenges, as they have been proven to reduce poultry pathogen infections, improve immune responses, aid in digestion of feed and improve general health of chickens. However, due to the vast amounts of probiotics required for poultry production, certain technological parameters need to be taken into consideration regarding stability during feed processing and storage in industrial conditions. For this reason, there has been increased interest in Bacillus based products because their endospore-forming ability improves stability during processing, enables longer shelf life and better survival in the chicken gut. This genus also elicits all of the probiotics effects of interest to the poultry industry, making them the ideal target for research and development. This study therefore focused on the development of a multi-strain poultry probiotic product, the associated production processes and demonstration of the efficacy. This study is structured into five chapters which are summarised as follows: