Under the category of healthy nutritional solutions, Evonik offers a group of probiotics to help our customers maintain a sustainable animal production process. In the EMEA, Evonik offers Ecobiol, which is a Bacillus based probiotic. Ecobiol is promoted as an effective alternative for antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) having at least the same animal performance but ensuring food safety.
Ecobiol is a unique strain of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CECT 5940, registered in the EU, which means two important things that Ecobiol bacterial strain is not toxigenic and it does not have any antibiotic resistant genes.
As a science-based company, we did a lot of research on Ecobiol in different parts of the world. That helped us to know exactly how Ecobiol works inside the animal and how it adds to the animal performance and the animal protein quality. It can withstand the pelleting temperature up to 90 degrees and GIT stressors like the stomach acidity and bile salts. It is also compatible with other feed additives such as coccidiostats, certain antibiotics and organic acids.
Probiotics in general have different modes of action, which make them the best alternatives to replace AGPs. Ecobiol has four identified mechanisms by which it can be differentiated from any other product. It rapidly converted to the vegetative form and starts to propagate inside the intestine. It produces macrolactins and other specific secondary metabolites with a strong inhibitory activity against pathogens. It also produces Lactic acid, which supports the propagation of other beneficial bacteria, enhancing resistance to enteropathogenic bacteria.
Most importantly, Ecobiol® maintains a balanced gut microflora through a mechanism called quorum quenching. Normally, bacteria communicate among each other through the production of different molecules, a phenomenon termed quorum sensing (QS). Blocking this communication is the quorum quenching (QQ).
Finally, yet importantly, Ecobiol can modulate the immune response of the animal based on the challenge level. That was very clear by monitoring the level of different proinflamatory cytokines like IL-8 and TNF-α.
For the product applications, Ecobiol has different forms where it can be added to the premix, feed or even drinking water.
For more information, please visit www.evonik.com
