Stability And Function Of Encapsulated Lactobacillus Zeae For Pig Gut Health

Abstract Lactobacilli have been used in livestock production to improve animal gut health; however, they are heat sensitive, which limits their use as feed additives. We have developed a novel spray-drying encapsulation technology that resulted in an approximately 0.5-log reduction of Lactobacillus zeae LB1, a probiotic bacterium known for its potential to reduce the infections caused by Salmonella and enterotoxigenic E. coli in vivo. In this study, encapsulated LB1 was evaluated for its stability during storage and feed pelleting and for its potential to modulate piglet performance. After 14-month storage at 4℃ and 22℃ in a sealed container, the survival rate of encapsulated LB1 represented 17.1% and 85.6% reduction of the original concentration, respectively. In the feed pelleting test, the survived non-encapsulated LB1 in pelleted or mash feed was 1-log lower in the concentration than encapsulated LB1 on the 7th and 30th day after pelleting. To examine the influence of LB1 alone or in combination with colostrum on pig performance, 80 newly-weaned piglets were equally allocated to five groups: 1) basal diets (control-CTL); 2) basal diets supplemented with non-encapsulated LB1 (NEP); 3) basal diets supplemented with encapsulated LB1 (EP); 4) basal diets supplemented with bovine colostrum (BC); 5) basal diets supplemented with EP and BC (EP-BC, same dose as in Group 3 or 4). No significant difference in growth performance was observed between the CTL group and other dietary treatments after five days’ treatment. Supplementation of LB1 or colostrum individually did not affect the population size of Lactobacillus in the ileum and colon of pigs. However, the EP-BC group had a significantly increased population of Lactobacillus in both the ileum and colon (94.57-fold and 23.51-fold, respectively) compared with the CTL group. In conclusion, our encapsulation technology can increase survival and delivery of Lactobacillus zeae potentially beneficial to piglet performance.