STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE AMOUNT OF PROBIOTICS FED AND THE COLONIZATION OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT OF RATS

Abstract

Probiotic organisms are becoming a part of daily life. In order to better understand the desirable amount of probiotics required to establish beneficial effects in humans and pets, the relationship between the intake of probiotics and its subsequent concentration in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract needs to be determined. The probiotic bacteria, Pediococcus acidilactici was used in this study to determine the correlation between detection of probiotics collected from fecal samples and amount of colonization in the GI tracts after including various amounts of probiotics in their food. This study was performed at University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Imagilin Technology and Hood College, Frederick, MD. Pediococcus acidilactici was administered to rats in different concentrations and evaluated using conventional microbiological techniques. It was established that the amount of probiotics in fecal samples was strongly correlated with the oral doses administered.