Broadcast: 28/07/2014 3:39:14 PM
PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: The term 'probiotic' has become a household name in recent years, with clever advertising and extensive research into its health benefits for humans.
Now scientists in Queensland are looking into how probiotics might benefit animals. The early results are looking promising for cattle, sheep and poultry producers.
As Megan Woodward reports.
MEGAN WOODWARD, REPORTER: It's an unlikely place for a great moment in science. But inside this 1950s fermenter is a bacterial broth that's cooking up a special probiotic that could lead to a breakthrough in animal health and production.
PROF. WAYNE BRYDEN, UNIVERSITY OF QLD: If you actually look at the mechanisms of the way these probiotics work, what they're basically doing is improving gut health. One of the things that we, I think, underestimate, both in terms of human health and animal health, is the importance of the gastrointestinal tract.
So if you can keep that more balanced, you get all sorts of improvements that improve the overall efficiency with which an animal grows or in the way we react and the way we behave.
MEGAN WOODWARD: The final product will be turned into a paste that isolates bacillus amyloliquefaciens, or a strain of bacteria more easily referred to as H57.
Thirty years ago, University of Queensland professor Peter Dart was asked by an American company to work on a bio-control system to prevent mould in hay. Scientists realised that the animals were gaining weight faster and after months of research, it became apparent that the inoculated feed wasn't just stopping mould from growing, but was actually working like a probiotic.
ASSOC. PROF. PETER DART, UNIVERSITY OF QLD: When added to feed, it made animals perform and grow better. So, that is what the probiotic effect is all about. It's changing the metabolism of the animal in order to help it to use feed more efficiently or to grow quicker. So if you can give it with feed, then it's a simple way of adding it.
MEGAN WOODWARD: Probiotics are good bacteria that help with digestion and general gut health. The advantages of taking them have been proven in recent years in humans, and are most commonly consumed through yoghurt or specialised milk.
The main game for researchers now is to figure out exactly how the gut changes influence animals and what probiotic use could mean for producers the world over. Sheep were the first to be trialled on the specially made feed - pallets laced with H57, containing around one million bacteria per gram of feed.
Their intake and weight was monitored, as well as urine and faeces output and general well-being.
The two most interesting results - nitrogen emissions from the animals eating the treated feed were significantly down and their appetite went through the roof.
ASSOC. PROF. PETER DART: Sheep themselves liked the feed that was incorporating the probiotic. We don't know why or how. But it's a very interesting angle that we're going to follow up. Of course, that meant that they ate more of the feed and they put on more weight. And the lambs themselves grew much better in the first three weeks, which is the danger period for lambs, after they were born.
MEGAN WOODWARD: The same rang true in some early trials on cattle. Now the research team is looking specifically at dairy calves.
DR DAVID MCNEILL, UNIVERSITY OF QLD: To put it most simply, we're hoping to see that this probiotic stimulates appetite. So one of the must-dos of good ruminant nutrition - cattle and sheep nutrition - is to get them to eat more than you would hope.
We think that that's the special aspect of this additive. It improves the health of their gut and it drives appetite.
MEGAN WOODWARD: Researcher David McNeill from the University of Queensland's School of Vet Science says while the health of the animal is always the priority, early results show the probiotic additive could also offer some benefits to the hip pocket of producers.
We also think that this probiotic can actually get calves to more happily eat feedstuffs that are otherwise less than palatable. They tend to be the cheaper feedstuffs.
So we're looking at that aspect in particular. Can we widen the variety of feedstuffs that we use in calf pellets to make a cheaper but still effective pellet?
MEGAN WOODWARD: David McNeill confesses he was sceptical when he was first told about the research and even pushed to build in other perspectives to the experiment, as he was so sure that the probiotic element wouldn't foster anything of much note.
DR DAVID MCNEILL: Ruminants run on microbes. And to add another little subtle addition of yet another microbe meant that, to me, it was going to be much harder to find a result.
I was expecting to see more obvious results in monogastrics with a simpler digestive system, like chickens and pigs.
MEGAN WOODWARD: To an extent, he was right. While the trials on ruminants - sheep and cattle - had strong outcomes, it was the poultry trial that really got scientists excited.
PROF. WAYNE BRYDEN: What we've found is when you add these to diets at the recommended levels, that you get improvements in bird performance, most noticeably feed conversion efficiency and growth rate. The significance of improved feed conversion efficiency is that it relates to the largest cost of intensive animal production and that's feed costs. By doing that you can reduce the amount of feed that you require and you reduce production costs.
MEGAN WOODWARD: In an industry as highly scrutinised as the poultry sector, the project promises plenty of advantages.
PROF. WAYNE BRYDEN: I think the farming industry is always looking for things that will improve animal health, wellbeing and productivity - but the industries are also looking for things that demonstrate to the public at large that what they're doing is not unnatural, it's a very natural way to do things because it's what we do to ourselves. We vaccinate ourselves, so we vaccinate birds. We feed probiotics, as we also consume probiotics. So it's that thing of saying, 'What we're doing to birds is no different than the way that we normally lead our own lives.'
MEGAN WOODWARD: The first round of trials with poultry have shown an improvement in growth of up to 8 per cent.
PROF. WAYNE BRYDEN: The big thing is that if the birds are growing quicker, they can be processed faster. It means that it uses less feed. When you consider that feed is something like 60-70 per cent of his costs, if he can reduce that by a couple of per cent, it really is... it's a major windfall.
MEGAN WOODWARD: While the University of Queensland investigates the hard science of the effect of probiotics on farm animals, anecdotal evidence is being collected daily by vets across the country.
At this clinic on the outskirts of Brisbane, probiotics are starting to form part of treatment plans for cats, dogs and horses.
This is Zeus, a family pet who has been under the knife recently for bowel surgery - and a prime candidate for probiotics as part of his recovery.
CHARLIE EGGERS, VETERINARIAN: We are getting more and more clients, I guess, that are wanting an alternative to conventional-type medicine. Probiotics, I guess, are indicated for some of our breeders and some of our equine people. Most of the time, they're something that can be used in addition to or as an alternative option to some antibiotics and they're basically aimed at improving the gut modality and things like that.
MEGAN WOODWARD: Most common reason for vets recommending probiotics is diarrhoea. Animal breeders have also found it significantly helps during the weaning process.
CHARLIE EGGERS: Certainly, the veterinary and human medicine side of things are moving pretty parallel in the way of probiotics.
They've certainly been using them, like, for the last 15 years they've been gaining popularity. I think that's definitely stemming a lot from human medicine and seeing that there are those alternative options that are proving to be beneficial.
MEGAN WOODWARD: It's this common understanding of probiotics that has led to commercial farm group Ridley AgriProducts getting involved in the UQ project. They've committed more than $250,000 to the experiment.
MATT CALLAGHAN, RIDLEY AGRIPRODUCTS: There's a lot of consumer pressure around where food comes from these days, and this is potentially one of those - an additive that can improve productivity and animal health and the consumer can feel good about it because it's not an antibiotic, or there's no negative consequences.
MEGAN WOODWARD: Matt Callaghan says the fact that the probiotic seems to so far be suitable for use across different species of animals is its best selling point.
MATT CALLAGHAN: From a feed perspective, most additives are generally relatively species-specific, 'cause they're targeting a particular pathway or a particular organism. Whereas this one, in the work conducted so far, seems to have positive effects in ruminants - in sheep - and also positive effects in poultry. So I suppose the potential net benefit for the investment in looking at this can carry across potentially more species and it allows the end user one package for all.
MEGAN WOODWARD: Those at the farm gate have expressed genuine interest in how the trial progresses.
MATT CALLAGHAN: Yeah, they're generally very positive, especially in those industries that have been exposed to drought of late and also those extensive animal industries that I spend a lot of my time in. There's not a lot of points of intervention from a management perspective, because property sizes are large, there's low labour, capital infrastructure for feeding mechanisms is often low. So people are genuinely looking for the next thing that can give their... I suppose, fit in with their current feeding systems and give their operations a boost.
A trial on weaners in drought-affected areas of North Queensland is on the cards for later this year and further testing on animals of different ages is also planned.
The research project is due to be completed the year after next, with a shelf product marketed soon after.
But in the meantime, the scientists involved have a gut feeling they're onto something good.
DR DAVID MCNEILL: We hope the unifying hypothesis or theory to all this work is that it stimulates them to eat more than they otherwise might and that is the secret to high production.