ISSUE FOCUS 62 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE October 2024 Postbiotics confer a number of benefits over other biotics such as pre- and postbiotics. Prebiotics are a feed source for bacteria and need to selectively stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria. Probiotics need to become active in the intestinal tract and produce metabolites to exert their effect; this takes time. In the case of postbiotics, these limitations are reduced. Benefits of postbiotics include: 1. Fast acting - postbiotics already contain the active components for prebiotic and probiotic effects 2. Flexible targeting – by combining different starting microorganisms and growth conditions, the metabolite profile of the postbiotic can be tailored for more specific responses or focused on different livestock species 3. Safe – there are no live organisms in postbiotics and only recognised, safe organisms should be used for fermentation to avoid risk of toxins 4. Stable – since there are no live organisms, postbiotics have greater tolerance for different environmental, feed processing conditions or application routes as well as a longer shelf-life. A fundamental step in the development of a postbiotic is the selection of the starting microorganism(s). What is the metabolite profile that is needed to deliver the response required in the animal? The screening profile can then be established to identify the best candidate, and production conditions tailored to maximize growth and metabolite yield whilst ensuring the starting organism is safe. Care needs to be taken with inactivation and purification to ensure the metabolite profile is not adversely affected. POSTBIOTIC COMPOSITION AND ACTIVITY The composition of a postbiotic depends on several factors including the starting microorganism, method of inactivation and purification. For example, the physical breakdown of yeast and bacteria will yield quite different cellular fractions e.g. mannan oligosaccharides and beta-glucans versus peptidoglycans (from gram positive bacteria), teichoic acids, and surface layer proteins. Positive effects of the cellular fractions on the host include immune modulation e.g. peptidoglycans from Lactobacillus salivarius acts on the IL-10 pathway to induce intestinal regulatory T-cells (Fernandez et al., 2011) or S-layer proteins (SLPs) from L. kefir have been shown to inhibit Salmonella invasion in Caco-2/TC-7 cell lines (Golowczyc et al., 2007). Furthermore, while the metabolite profile from these organisms can differ, they can be broadly categorized as primary metabolites, such as amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, and organic acids, and secondary metabolites such as exopolysaccharides, alkaloids, terpenoids, peptides, and others. These secondary metabolites have a wide range of properties including antioxidant, immune response regulation, antimicrobial, nutritional and neural and hormonal regulation. nu.biom – A POSTBIOTIC BUILT FOR INTESTINAL HEALTH The nu.biom range of postbiotics (nu.ance biotechnology, Switzerland) was developed from the very beginning with a species specific, problem specific approach. Proprietary microbial strains were selected and screened using a combination of approaches including genomics, metabolomics and in
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