The advantages of Bacillus coagulans and its application in livestock production

The advantages of Bacillus coagulans and its application in livestock production

Excellent Characteristics and Health Function of Bacillus coagulans

Bacillus coagulans can produce spores, in addition to the beneficial properties of general lactic acid bacteria, but also has good resistance stability. Spores have strong heat resistance, radiation resistance, chemical resistance and hydrostatic pressure resistance, and their ability to resist ultraviolet rays is generally twice that of their vegetative cells. Bacillus coagulans can grow at 30 ~ 65 °C, and the spores are resistant to high temperature of 90 °C, showing competitiveness, antibiosis and parasitic ability, which inhibit the growth of digestive tract pathogens. These characteristics of Bacillus coagulans make it well overcome the problems existing in ordinary lactic acid bacteria preparations, and have unparalleled characteristics and advantages compared with ordinary lactic acid bacteria.

1 Characteristics of Bacillus coagulans 

1. Facultative aerobic microorganisms, homolactic fermentation to produce L-lactic acid.
2. High temperature resistance : the spores of such bacteria will not die even if they are stored in boiling water for 30 min.
3. Acid resistance : in artificial gastric juice with different pH, the acid resistance test was carried out by changing the action time. The results showed that the number of viable Bacillus coagulans did not decrease with time in artificial gastric juice with pH above 2.0. The ordinary lactic acid bacteria nutrients even in the number of viable bacteria in the milk will be significantly reduced.
4. Breeding in the intestine, strong colonization. After the spores grow into vegetative bodies in the intestine, they can colonize and normalize the bacteria in the intestine.
5. Producing antimicrobial substances against Gram-negative intestinal spoilage bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Shigella and Salmonella typhi.

2 Health function of Bacillus coagulans

Bacillus coagulans can form spores and have good preservation, which overcomes the shortcomings of poor preservation of common lactic acid bacteria preparations sold in the market and the number of viable bacteria decreases significantly with the extension of preservation time. Therefore, in recent years, the research on the health function of Bacillus coagulans has been deepening. Bacillus coagulans have the following health functions :

2.1 Regulating animal intestinal microecological balance

At present, microecologics widely used in feed industry are mainly lactobacillus, bifidobacteria, bacillus, yeast and their cultures. Most of the beneficial bacteria are aerobic bacteria in the fermentation process. The products still consume a large amount of free oxygen into the intestinal tract of animals, colonize in the intestinal tract, and reduce the redox potential, which is conducive to the growth of anaerobic bacteria such as lactic acid bacteria and Bifidobacterium in the intestinal tract, so as to achieve the flora balance of intestinal microecology.

2.2 Promoting nutrient digestion

After the nutrients ingested by animals enter the body, they need to undergo a series of physical and chemical actions to be absorbed and utilized. On the one hand, Bacillus coagulans produce a variety of digestive enzymes to promote the digestion and absorption of nutrients. On the other hand, through the growth, reproduction and colonization of this strain in the digestive tract of animals, it directly produces various nutrients such as vitamins, amino acids and short-chain fatty acids, and significantly increases the peristalsis speed of the small intestine and improves the intestinal digestion function.

2.3 Improve animal immune function, improve disease resistance

It has been reported that adding a small amount of Bacillus coagulans to chicken feed or ornamental animal feed can improve the disease resistance of chickens or ornamental animals, prevent diseases caused by chicken plague and other microorganisms, and improve the survival rate of chickens. In addition, experiments conducted in the United States and other countries have confirmed that the number of colonies of harmful microorganisms such as Salmonella in chicken or eggs decreased significantly when chickens were often consumed with Bacillus coagulans additives, thereby improving the edible safety level of egg foods. In addition, Bacillus coagulans can also reduce animal blood lipids and prevent atherosclerosis. Reduce blood glucose levels, improve glucose tolerance ; improve the phagocytic ability of animal peritoneal macrophages and enhance the function of phagocytic cells ; enhance animal NK cell activity ; accelerate the development of animal immune organs, increase the number of T, B lymphocytes, improve animal humoral and cellular immunity, increase animal liver and bursa coefficient. In addition, it also has a good clinical effect on animal colitis.

2.4 Promoting animal growth and reducing mortality and feed-weight ratio

The study found that cattle and pigs and other large livestock often fed with feed containing Bacillus coagulans, not only can improve the utilization of cellulose feed conversion rate, but also to prevent large livestock disease and shorten the time of inventory. Bacillus coagulans can also replace the widely used antibiotics such as tetracycline hydrochloride, monensin and avermectin ' animal growth promoter ', so as to solve the problem of excessive antibiotic residues in livestock ( poultry ) meat for many years.