Effect of the composition of probiotic bacteria culture medium on their capacity to adhere to intestinal epithelial cells of poultry

Abstract

The use of probiotics in animal production offers a natural alternative to antibiotic suplementation as growth promoters. The efficiency of probiotics depends on the production and preservation technologies applied as well as on their ability to persist in the gastrointestinal tract. The adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) plays a vital role in their persistence, but it may be affected by factors that modify superficial structures. Thus, the aim of this work was to study the development of probiotic poultry strains on different culture media and assess the influence of such media components on their capacity to adhere to IEC of BB chicks. Towards this end, probiotic strains Enterococcus faecium LET301, Lactobacillus salivarius LET201 and L. reuteri LET210 were grown at 37ºC in both conventional culture media and a specifically designed medium containing local industries by-products (yeast cream, cane molasse, whey), and adjusted to 1 x 108 CFU/ml. IEC were obtained from ileum of fourteen-day-old broilers and their concentration was adjusted to 5 x 105cells/ml. The IEC were incubated with the bacterial suspensions and the adhesion percentage and index were determined by microscopy. E. faecium LET301 and L. reuteri LET210 showed higher adhesion to IEC than L. salivarius LET201 in all the studied conditions. These results demonstrate that the evaluated by-products did not significantly affect the adhesion of the probiotic strains. Thus, this medium can be successfully used as an economic alternative for the development of poultry probiotics.