Screening for the Probiotic Activities of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from the Gastrointestinal Tract of Traditional Poultry in Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract

In the view to overcome the problem of antibiotic multi-resistance of pathogens encountered in poultry farming, the most appropriate strategy was suggested to be the use of probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the probiotic properties of LAB isolated from gastrointestinal tract of Ivorian traditional chickens for potential application as probiotic in broiler production. So, after a preliminary screening for pH 2.0 tolerance, the probiotic characters like tolerance to bile salt, hydrophobicity, auto and co-aggregation properties, antimicrobial activity and antibiotic susceptibility were evaluated. The results showed that amongst the 90 LAB investigated, a total of 15 isolates were able to grow after 90 min exposed to pH 2.0. The resistance of these 15 isolates to 0.3% bile salt was more than 50%. A test of their adhesion ability to host epithelial cells using cell surface hydrophobicity produced a range of 50.25% to 92.57%. The isolates had weak auto-aggregation ability and high coaggregation with the pathogens Salmonella enteritidis and Escherichia coli. They had wide spectrum inhibitory activity against challenging zoonotic and foodborne pathogens. Furthermore, all the five selected strains showed resistance to Colistin while 60-80% resistance was demonstrated against Oxacillin, Gentamicin and Kanamycin. Based on above characteristics, the LAB strains Pediococcus acidilactici JK148 and Lactobacillus pentosus JK151 which showed excellent probiotic potentials were selected as chicken probiotic candidates.