Abstract

Live probiotic microorganisms can improve ruminant productivity but results are variable and modes of action uncertain. Non-live microbial extracts provide insight into probiotic modes of action and their efficacy challenges the definition of probiotics. Twenty-two trials on lambs and ten on dairy cows were undertaken with non-live probiotic microorganism extract products RumenZyme Plus (RZP) and ProDairy (PD) respectively. Lambs treated with single or double doses of RZP tended to gain extra live weight relative to control with a 445 g median treatment response (P=0.001). The patterns of RZP results did not fit with an anti-inflammatory response alone but rather general productivity improvement. Cows receiving daily doses of PD had higher daily MS production with mean treatment response of 49.7 g/cow/day (P=0.008, 95% confidence interval of 16.3 to 83.2 g/cow/day). There was no evidence of benefit from the addition of live probiotic lactic acid bacteria in these trials. Live lactic acid bacteria supplementation actually reduced response relative to the non-live probiotic extract in one dairy and two lamb trials (P<0.05). The results in this study demonstrated efficacy of non-live probiotic extracts for ruminant productivity.

TA, Jenkins, and V Jenkins

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 74, Napier, 148-153, 2014