Probiotics – hip or hype?

Posted by Beryl on Oct 14, 2009 • (5)

Horse supplement types seem to be as susceptible to fashion as mini skirts. The current ‘magic’ supplement is the probiotic. But what are probiotics? How do they differ from prebiotics? And does your horse really need them?

Probiotics are a group of ‘friendly’ bacteria (literally, “pro life,” indicating that they are bacteria and yeasts that help rather than harm) and are gaining popularity as daily supplements for humans. As always, horse owners have been quick on the uptake and starting to realize that horses can benefit from these bacteria as well.

Probiotics taken by mouth take up residence in your horse’s digestive tract. The digestive tract can be thought of as a rain forest ecosystem, with billions of bacteria and yeasts acting as the trees, frogs, and leopards. Some of these inhabitants are harmful, some are harmless, while others do good. By adding probotics to the horse’s diet, you are tipping the scale in favour of the bacteria that do good.

There are a number of ways in which probiotics work:

  • They compete with the harmful bacteria for limited space in your horse’s digestive system, thus helping to drive out harmful pathogens (disease-causing organisms). This is particularly useful in horses with gastro-intestinal problems, such as colic, diarrhea or ulcers.
  • They help to digest the food that your horse has eaten. Studies have shown that probiotics increase the quantity, availability, digestibility and assimilability of nutrients. In plain English – your horse gets more value out of the food that he eats.
  • Antibiotics can disturb the balance of your “inner rain forest” by killing friendly bacteria. When this happens, harmful bacteria and yeasts can move in and flourish. This is why, whenever your vet prescribes antibiotics, he or she will usually add a probiotic as well.

As well as feeding probiotics, you can give prebiotics (such as fructo-oligosaccharides or xylitol). These supplements are ‘food’ for the probiotic. They are substances that the horse can’t digest, but the bacteria can digest.  Giving a prebiotic is like putting manure in a garden; it is thought to foster a healthy environment for the probiotic.

There are various problems with some of the probiotics available. The downside of using a living organism is that probiotics may die on the shelf. In fact, a study reported in 1990 found that most acidophilus capsules on the market contained no living acidophilus. The situation has improved in subsequent evaluations, but still some products are substandard.

Another problem with some strains of bacteria is that they are destroyed by stomach acid. You need to give a probiotic that survives the stomach acid and moves into the intestine alive and able to do good work.

One of the best probiotics, in my opinion, is called Lactobacillus Sporongenes (LS) (Its actual correct name is Bacillus Coagulans). This is the one we use for Digestion and Ultimate mix. This bacterium forms a hard, resistant spore, which is a good thing for two reasons:

  • The hard spore makes the shelf life of the probiotic extremely good. Unlike most probiotics, you don’t have to keep LS refrigerated. And, when you purchase a probiotic containing LS, you will be obtaining a higher proportion of living bacteria.
  • The hard LS spore is resistant to the acid in the stomach, but slowly opens up in the intestine, where it is needed.

5 Comments

  1. Karl, Milmac Feeds says:
    October 14th, 2009 at3:56 pm

    Nice article! Thanks for the effort you put in to informing the public!

  2. Peter L'Estrange says:
    December 6th, 2009 at1:12 pm

    Sure only Lactobacillus S by itself is not enough to use in the caecum? That LS doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge – milk is kept there.

  3. Beryl says:
    December 7th, 2009 at8:08 am

    Peter, for more info, look at http://www.lactospore.com. LS is very good at colonising the caecum.

  4. Peter L'Estrange says:
    February 12th, 2010 at3:57 pm

    As I understand it. Lacto is only operative in the small intestine and the “bacteria” for the colon is Bifidobacterium. How does the LS maintain its viabilty if no temperature control? Most probiotic bacteria become active after 25C and start losing teir viabilty which is why some have to be kept in the fridge until they are activated by the gut system.

  5. Beryl says:
    February 13th, 2010 at6:32 pm

    Hi Peter!
    Lactobacillus sporogenes is actually a bit of a misnomer. This bacteria is, in reality, called Bacillus Coagulans. The taxonomical classification was revised in 1939 in the seventh edition of the Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology to B. coagulans, although some researchers and most commercial producers continued to use the original name.
    It is stable at room temperature because it is a spore forming bacteria. I quote from http://www.lactospore.com: “This property of spore formation by L. sporogenes* is the main characteristic that makes it the probiotic of choice in clinical applications. On oral administration, these spores survive the acidic gastric environment and are activated due to the low pH, mechanical churning action of the stomach and the water in the gastric environment. The spore coats imbibe water, swell, and the increased water content causes a rise in the metabolic rate of the sporulated bacilli. Outgrowths begin to protrude from the spore-coats. The spores pass on to the duodenum where the outgrown cells germinate and transform into viable vegetative cells. They begin to proliferate in the small intestine, multiplying rapidly. Usually, germination takes place about four hours after ingestion. A large supply of viable L. sporogenes* is thereby ensured in the small intestine. These cells settle in the intestinal tract and continue their metabolic activities, producing lactic acid and probably bacteriocins, which render the intestinal environment non-conducive for the growth of harmful pathogenic bacteria.”

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