Impact of lactate on growth of cultures of cecal bacteria from commercial broilers

Authors: Hinton Jr, Arthur; Ingram, Kimberly

Submitted to: Poultry Science Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/8/2016
Publication Date: 7/11/2016
Citation: Hinton Jr, A., Ingram, K.D. 2016. Impact of lactate on growth of cultures of cecal bacteria from commercial broilers [abstract]. Poultry Science Meeting.

Interpretive Summary: none

Technical Abstract: Cultures of beneficial bacteria used in probiotics produce and utilize organic acids that may play a role in the ability of the cultures to inhibit colonization of poultry by enteropathogens. Cecal contents of adult poultry contain many of these beneficial bacteria, and earlier experiments showed that growing cecal cultures in media supplemented with succinate had no significant effect on culture growth. Therefore, 3 experiments were conducted to examine the effect of lactate on the growth of cecal cultures. Three sets of ceca were taken from a processing facility, and contents were mixed with 10 ml of 0.1% Bacto peptone. Media containing (g/l) tryptose, 10.0; yeast extract, 5.0; sodium chloride, 5.0; beef extract, 2.0; and glucose, 2.0 was prepared and supplemented with 0, 50, 100, or 150 mM of sodium lactate. Media was inoculated with 0.1 ml of the cecal contents and incubated aerobically at 37oC for 48 h. After incubation, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in the cultures were enumerated on agar media composed of the broth media with the same lactate concentration in which the cultures had been grown and 3.0% Bacto agar. Inoculated agar plates were incubated aerobically or anaerobically at 37oC for 48 h, colony-forming-units were counted, and isolated colonies were selected for identification using the Biolog Bacterial Identification System. Results indicated that lactate concentration of the media produced no significant difference in the number of aerobic or anaerobic bacteria recovered from the cecal cultures. Furthermore, there were differences in the bacterial flora of the cecal cultures from the 3 experiments, and different incubation atmospheres selected for different cecal bacteria. In addition to Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp. was among the major aerobic isolates recovered in all trials, while anaerobic isolates included Veillonella and Propionibacterium spp. Findings also indicated that the composition of cultures from media supplemented with lactate differ from cultures from media supplemented with succinate. However, other media supplements may be required to select beneficial bacteria from different cecal cultures.