ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE February 2026 61 corresponding species to establish representative microbial communities. Species-specific physicochemical conditions were applied, including appropriate buffering systems, temperature, retention time, and feeding schedules. The simulators were periodically supplied with the substrates of interest (forage- or grain-based), and experiments were run for periods ranging from 14 to 20 days. Samples were collected at regular intervals to assess substrate dry matter (DM) degradation, pH, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations. In general, system stabilization was observed after approximately one week of operation; therefore, comparative analyses were performed using data collected from day 7 onward. The composition of the microencapsulated FF premix is defined according to the target species. The formulation used for ruminant systems contained Bacillus subtilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For broilers, FF included Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces boulardii, Enterococcus faecium, and Lactobacillus spp. (L. casei and L. acidophilus). The FF formulation applied to pig fattening systems consisted of Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Enterococcus faecium. EFFECTS OF FF USE ON THE DEGRADATION OF FORAGE SUBSTRATES Three different experimental runs were performed in in vitro simulators of the ruminal environment to assess the effect of adding FF on the fermentation of forage substrates. A total of 76 data points (51 of simulators with FF and 25 without) were compared. Statistical analysis showed that FF supplementation improved DM degradation by an average of 3.44 %. This value was statistically significant (p-value of 0.0023) with a 95 % confidence interval on the percentage of improvement of [1.29 ; 5.59] %. The data also showed that the improvement can be dosage dependent. Figure 1 shows the DM degradation difference (relative to the control with no FF) for different dosages of FF. It can be seen that a small dosage (such as 300 mg/kg of feed) can lead to an improvement close to 2 % (although this difference shows no statistical significance), but larger dosages, close to 1000 and 1700 mg of FF per kg of feed, can reach a DM degradation improvement of about 5 % (that is statistically significant compared to not adding FF). Evaluating other variables, FF supplementation resulted in a significantly lower pH (6.41) compared to the non-supplemented control (6.68), while no significant differences were observed in individual short-chain fatty acids concentrations or in the acetate-to-propionate ratio. This indicates that FF enhanced dry matter degradation without markedly altering the overall fermentation profile. Similar responses to those observed in these in vitro simulation studies have been reported for different probiotic-based strategies, where improvements in fiber degradation or digestibility of forage diets, ranging from 2.2 to up to 8 %, occurred without major shifts in fermentation end products (Wu et al., 2025; Eyre et al., 2025; McCann et al., 2017). In general, the results highlight the potential of microbial additives to improve the utilization of fibrous feeds through 300 1000 FF dosage (mg/kg) Degradation difference relative to control (%) 8 6 4 2 0 1700 Figure 1. Degradation difference (relative to control with no FF) in in vitro ruminal simulations using forage-based substrates and FF as an additive at different dosages.
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