02901nas a2200253   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260007000043653002300113653001200136653001500148653002500163653000800188100001200196700001200208700001400220700001500234700001200249245008600261300001200347490000800359520226600367022001402633       2014                            d  c12/2014bSchlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KGaHannover10aCampylobacter spp.10aC. coli10aprobiotics10aEnterococcus faecium10apig1 aK Bratz1 aG Gölz1 aP Janczyk1 aK Nöckler1 aT Alter00aAnalysis of in vitro and in vivo effects of probiotics against Campylobacter spp.  a155-1620 v1283 a Campylobacter (C.) spp. are well recognised as the leading cause of bacterial foodborne  diarrheal disease worldwide, with C. jejuni and C. coli as the most important  species. C. coli is highly abundant in pigs and pork meat has often been implicated  as a source for human infection. Intestinal colonisation of C. coli in pigs plays a role in  carcass contamination during slaughter. Different pre-harvest intervention measures  are proposed to reduce the C. coli burden in the porcine intestine. Among others,  the use of probiotics to prevent or reduce the colonisation of intestinal pathogens is  discussed.  One aim of this study was to screen a variety of probiotics to evaluate their inhibitory  activity against Campylobacter spp. in vitro. Therefore, cell-free culture supernatants  of Lactobacillus spp., Bifidobacterium spp., Enterococcus (E.) faecium NCIMB 10415, and  Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 were tested against C. jejuni and C. coli by a well-diffusion  agar assay. Seven out of eleven Lactobacillus strains showed an inhibitory activity  against at least one of the three tested Campylobacter strains. This antagonistic activity  against Campylobacter spp. was caused by the production of organic acids that lowered  the pH. Application with pH neutralised cell-free culture supernatants abolished  this inhibitory effect. Other tested strains with probiotic properties showed no inhibitory  activity against any Campylobacter spp. strain.  The strain E. faecium NCIMB 10415 was chosen to test its inhibitory activity against  C. coli in vivo. Twenty weaned piglets were allocated into two groups, a probiotic  group and a control group. The diet of the probiotic group was supplemented with  E. faecium NCIMB 10415 (109 cfu/kg feed, Cylactin) since weaning, whereas the control  group received no probiotic treatment. All piglets were naturally colonised with C. coli. The excretion load of C. coli was monitored for 28 days. The results indicate  that dietary supplementation of E. faecium NCIMB 10415 did not significantly affect C. coli excretion levels in pigs.  In this study, E. faecium NCIMB 10415 showed no antagonistic activity against C. coli  in vitro and in vivo and had no impact on the growth performance of weaned  piglets.  a0005-9366