Phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives to promote growth and enhance host health

There are heightened concerns globally on emerging drug-resistant superbugs and the lack of new antibiotics for treating human and animal diseases. For the agricultural industry, there is an urgent need to develop strategies to replace antibiotics for food-producing animals, especially poultry and livestock. The 2nd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics was held at the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, France, December 12-15, 2016 to discuss recent scientific developments on strategic antibiotic-free management plans, to evaluate regional differences in policies regarding the reduction of antibiotics in animal agriculture and to develop antibiotic alternatives to combat the global increase in antibiotic resistance. More than 270 participants from academia, government research institutions, regulatory agencies, and private animal industries from >25 different countries came together to discuss recent research and promising novel technologies that could provide alternatives to antibiotics for use in animal health and production; assess challenges associated with their commercialization; and devise actionable strategies to facilitate the development of alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) without hampering animal production. The 3-day meeting consisted of four scientific sessions including vaccines, microbial products, phytochemicals, immune-related products, and innovative drugs, chemicals and enzymes, followed by the last session on regulation and funding. Each session was followed by an expert panel discussion that included industry representatives and session speakers. The session on phytochemicals included talks describing recent research achievements, with examples of successful agricultural use of various phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives and their mode of action in major agricultural animals (poultry, swine and ruminants). Scientists from industry and academia and government research institutes shared their experience in developing and applying potential antibiotic-alternative phytochemicals commercially to reduce AGPs and to develop a sustainable animal production system in the absence of antibiotics.Fil: Lillehoj, Hyun. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Liu, Yanhong. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Calsamiglia, Sergio. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Fernandez Miyakawa, Mariano Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Patobiología; ArgentinaFil: Chi, Fang. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Cravens, Ron L.. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Oh, Sungtaek. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Gay, Cyril G.. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; Argentin

Changes in bacterial populations in refrigerated raw milk collected from a semi-arid area of Algeria

Most of the studies on milk microbiota have been performed on cows’ milk from animals reared in temperate and humid areas. In this work, changes in the bacterial consortium of refrigerated raw milk collected from cows grazed in a semi-arid area of Algeria were studied during 21 days of refrigerated storage. Twenty bacterial morpho-physiotypes were selected among 150 isolates from milk at different times over storage and identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The dominant bacterial populations were characterized by a few species. Stenotrophomonas rhizophila, S. maltophilia and Chryseobacterium indologenes were predominant during the first 7 days, Lactobacillus pentosus and L. plantarum were isolated only after the 10th day, while Acinetobacter spp. was isolated at the end of storage. Compared to the current literature on milk from temperate zones, sluggish and incomplete microbial growth was observed with a long incubation phase ranging from 6.7 to 10.5 days and a maximum growth not exceeding 5.3 log colony-forming units (CFU) · mL−1. The composition of milk microbiota and its evolution over refrigeration suggest a bio-geographical characterization due to environmental factors. In particular, the possible presence of antimicrobial molecules coming from plants grazed in the semi-arid zone around the farm may account for the presence of selected microbial species and the extended milk shelf-life. Despite this being a preliminary work, these results encourage the use of arid herbs in animal feed and motivate scientists to focus their efforts on the study of biochemical composition of plants from arid areas and their antimicrobial activity