Bio-Ag Consultants & Distributors Inc. Agricultural natural products for sustainable organic farming and nutrition for livestock

A feeding trial was conducted with lamb in Jilin Agriculture University to compare the effect of two probiotic products, one produced by Bio-ag , Canada(Enzo-Lac) and the other by Cangzhou, China, on feed intake and digestion, blood parameters and fecal bacteria counts. After the feeding trial, the lambs were slaughtered and meat was treated with Bio-Ion and Bacteria counts on treated and untreated meat were determined.

1 Material and Methods

1.1 Animals and grouping

15 ewes, 16 to 19km and 15 rams, 17 to 19km were randomly divided into 3 groups (10 in each group with 5 male and 5 female). Each group of animals was kept in a 2.5X5.0m pen in a well ventilated room. One group of animals was fed basal diet (100g pellet concentrate feed and corn straw) and the other two groups were fed basal diet supplemented with either Yishengsu (a probiotic product manufactured by Cangzhou, China), or Enzo-Lac 2g/head, for 60 days.

1.2 Determination of feed intake and dry matter (DM) digestion

After 30 days feeding, ewes in each group were transferred to metabolic cage. The animals were fed the same diets as they were fed before. After 3 days when the animals were kept in the cage, feed intake of each animal was recorded. Feces and urine output were measured every morning. Feed and feces samples were oven-dried at 100 to constant weight to determined DM content. Then DM intake and digestibility were calculated.

1.3 Blood test

At the end of feeding trial, 5ml blood sample was collected from each animal for RBC and HB test.

1.4 Bacterial count testing

Fecal samples were collected the day before slaughtering from the rectum of each animal for total bacterial count and E Coli count testing.

1.5 Slaughter and meat bacteria testing

After slaughtering, carcass, liver and spleen weights were recorded. A part of the left rear leg of each lamb was taken and sealed in a plastic bag as control, the counterpart part of right leg was taken and dipped in Bio-Ion and sealed in a plastic bag. All meat samples were kept in fridge for 48 hours and then total bacteria counts on 1g meat were determined.

2 Results and Discussion

Dry matter intakes and digestion by experimental animals are shown in Table 1. Dry matter intake was significantly increased by Enzo-Lac supplementation (p<0.05). But the increase in dry matter intake for Yishengsu was not significant and there are no significant differences between the two supplemented groups. Dry matter digestibility was not affected by the probiotic inclusion in the diets.

Table #1

Dry Matter (DM) intake and digestion of experimental animals (n=4)

DM intake g

DM output

Dm digestibility

CONTROL

441.0

222.5

0.49

YISHENGSU

493.8

233.1

0.52

ENZO-LAC

515.4

259.6

0.50

The red blood count which is the most important of the three categories had an amazing 15.28% increase. This translates into a much better oxygen saturation at the intercellular level. This also translates into better assimilation in the digestive process as well as a very significant increase in the animals immune defense mechanism. This becomes evident further on in the experiment when we see the drastic reduction in the bacteria count of the freshly slaughtered meat.

There were slight but not significant increases in Hgb with Yishengsu and Enzo-Lac supplementation. HCT however showed a 10% increase over the control group (what this means is that Enzo-Lac showed an increase of 10% in erythrocytes in the total blood volume). This translates into more oxygen transport capability.

Table #2

Results of blood test

RBC x 10to9th

Hgb mg/L

HCT%

CONTROL

7.2

85.3

0.32

YISHENGSU

8.1

89.7

0.33

ENZO-LAC

8.3

90.3

0.35

The Enzo-Lac group gained 1.3Kilo more on live weight bases over the control group. What is more interesting is that the Enzo-Lac carcass continues to maintain that weight advantage frown the live weight over to the carcass weight. What it shows is that Enzo-Lac has a higher percentage dress out. There is 3.4 percentage increase in the Enzo-Lac group compared with control group, which approach LSD (5P.C.) value (4.0).

Table #3

Carcass yield

Live weight (LW)

Carcass weight (CW)

CW/LW%

CONTROL

17.5

5.7

32.7

YISHENGSU

18.7

6.5

34.4

ENZO-LAC

18.8

6.8

36.1

Enzo-Lac again outshone the other two groups when it came to total bacteria count in the feces. The Enzo-Lac bacteria count was only 57.2% of the Control and was only 29.2% of the Chinese probiotic. Again Enzo-Lac outperformed the other two groups when it came to measuring the deadly Ecoli counts. Enzo-Lac had lowered the Ecoli by a whopping 68%.

Table #4

Results of fecal bacteria counts (x10to6th/g)

CFU

E. Coli Counts

CONTROL

92.0

8.44

YISHENGSU

180

3.22

ENZO-LAC

52.6

2.76

Enzo-Lac supplementation showed a dramatic increase in the freshly slaughtered meat. Enzo-Lac lowered the bacteria count by 73% over the Control and 45% lower than the Chinese probiotic.

When treated with our Bio-Ion the bacteria count dropped to an amazing 0.13 CFU (X 10 to the 6th). This would prove to be a tremendous boone to poor people in the world who have no way of chilling or freezing meat

Table #5

Effect of Bio-Ion dipping on bacteria counts of meat stored for 48 h (x10to6th/g)

Bacteria Count Control

BC - Bio-Ion Treatment

CONTROL

26.16

0.28

YISHENGSU

12.88

0.15

ENZO-LAC

7.08

0.13

Bio-Ion Treatment

drastically reduces

total bacteria counts

of meat.

Summary

To sum up, probiotic products, Enzo-Lac (and Yishengsu to a lesser extent), supplementation can significantly increase RBC Hgb, HCT and Carcass yield, and reduce bacteria counts. Enzo-Lac inclusion (2g/d) significantly increases feed intake, reduces E. Coli count in feces as well as lowers bacteria counts on freshly slaughtered meat.