Along with corn and hay, cattle at Iowa State University’s Beef Nutrition Farm are consuming small doses of bacteria as part of their daily rations. It’s part of research into alternatives to the antibiotics that are a common tool in livestock health, says Harvest Public Media. “That’s going to be a broad area of research here in the next 10 to 15 years,” says ISU professor Stephanie Hansen. A common bacterium found in food, Lactobacillus acidophilus, might “out-compete a bad bacteria for attachment in the gastrointestinal tract in the intestine, so that would be a good thing.”
The FDA is nearing the end of a three-year phase-out of use of medically important antibiotics to promote weight gain in cattle, hogs and poultry. It’s part of a government-wide campaign to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for treatment of disease in humans.
An Iowa feed company already is selling a pig-feed supplement made from Lactobacillus acidophilus and says the pigs show an overall health, which means less need for medications. At Oklahoma State University, poultry researcher Alejandro Penaloza has found a helpful bacteria that can survive in poultry feed, reports Harvest Public Media. “We cannot say that probiotics is the silver bullet to completely eliminate antibiotics. But I am sure that they can help a lot,” Penaloza said.