Probiotic good bugs may control gut infections

Scientists from the UK’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey have shown that probiotics – the good bacteria taken by millions of people worldwide – can reduce the disease-causing Salmonella bacteria which infect people and pigs.

“Salmonella is responsible for thousands of food poisoning cases each year with many of the cases originating from infected pork products. Recently the European Union banned the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Antibiotics were being regularly used as growth promoters to make pigs put on weight and protect them from diseases”, says James Collins from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.

“The EU ban is part of the effort to reduce the emergence of new antibiotic resistant bacteria, particularly as many disease-causing and antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA and clostridia are now so common”, says James Collins.

The scientists have also managed to advance the use of alternatives in animal testing by developing a technique based on NASA space technology, which allowed them to grow small pieces of pig gut in a 3-dimensional matrix which mimics the natural environment in a pig’s gut.

“The 3D model specifically allows us to test the potential health benefits of probiotics as viable alternatives to growth promoters in pigs”, says James Collins. “This model is an essential first step as an alternative to the use of animals in scientific research, and means that we did not need to do the work in live pigs”.

The work by the Surrey team will contribute to reducing the number of pigs carrying Salmonella, and so cut its general spread in the environment. This in turn is expected to reduce the number of Salmonella related food poisoning cases reported every year.

The scientists have not yet discovered exactly how the probiotics work, but they hope that their new model will uncover the mechanism behind the way robiotics reduce pathogens in the gut and confer other health benefits.

Media Contact

Lucy Goodchild EurekAlert!

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors