CZ59594A3 - Method of supporting growth of poultry and enterococci micro-encapsulated by fatty acids for use in poultry - Google Patents

Abstract

Dried, rotary disc fatty acid microspheres of Enterococcus faecium, strains 301 and 202 are mixed and used as a poultry feed additive for growth enhancement and carcass quality improvement.

Description

Fatty acid microencapsulated microococci for use in poultry

Technical field

The invention relates to microencapsulated enterococci for use in poultry.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In poultry, in particular chickens and turkeys, growth-promoting agents in the form of antibiotics are widely used. Known antibiotics are, for example, agents such as np

Stafac and BMD (bacitracin methylene disalicylate), which are used in sub-therapeutic amounts, for example 10 and 25 g / t, as feed additives to promote the desired growth characteristics in poultry. However, the use of antibiotics for these purposes has recently been criticized. One criticism points to the possibility that poultry will gradually develop tolerance to antibiotics and that the antibiotic will cease to promote growth. Other criticisms relate to the health risks of the addition of unnatural antibiotics and the devaluing effects they may have. However, for their benefit, antibiotics are still used to increase feed conversion, improve meat composition, and enhance growth.

It is known that certain bacteria can have a beneficial effect when added to feed. This effect consists in the delivery of natural intestinal microflora. Some companies offer probiotics on the market that contain the required bacteria. Probiotics, however, find it difficult to maintain a stable product. Probiotics are most commonly used in very low amounts, i.e. at about 0.1% feed. However, unused feed or feed additive containing probiotics is often stored by farmers for a long time. This storage often takes place under conditions in which there is a certain amount of moisture and high temperature. In many cases, the amount of moisture is just sufficient to activate the onset of bacterial growth, but insufficient for its duration. As a result, the bacteria will die and the probiotic's effectiveness will be lost. In other cases, the addition of antibiotics to the feed or feed additive containing the probiotic results in an unfavorable interaction with the bacteria, especially when small amounts of moisture are present, and again the bacteria are killed. Long-term storage of probiotics is therefore a significant problem.

In another environment where probiotics are added to, for example, chicken feed, it is common to pellet the mass and add the probiotic before pelletizing. The moisture from the steam used during pelletization partially activates the bacteria, but can lead to their destruction due to lack of moisture. They can also kill heat during pelletization. Furthermore, there is the problem of potential inactivation of bacteria in the acidic environment of the stomach before they actually enter the intestines. Thus, there remains a need for probiotics that release organisms at the right time in the intestine and are not subject to premature release due to moisture or adverse pH values existing in the digestive tract before the small intestine.

In poultry, it is particularly desirable to achieve certain characteristics as far as possible. These include increased weight gain, better feed conversion, meat composition, and finally a uniform flock weight. Increased weight gain and improved feed conversion are of course desirable for the associated savings that accompany these desirable results. The composition of the meat is important because the most suitable tissue storage area for obtaining select meat is the chest. Thus, not only weight gain is important, but also where it is stored. The uniform weight of the flock is important because if more birds are of normal size, less handwork is needed and the processor can rely more on machining. On the other hand, if birds vary widely in size from very small to very large, while maintaining the total weight of the flock, smaller and larger birds require much more manual work and cannot be easily machined for non-uniform sizes. A uniform flock size with a high percentage of distribution within the normal size range, allowing the chickens to be processed with a standardized machine, is a desirable characteristic.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary purpose of the invention is a probiotic for non-antibiotic poultry containing only naturally occurring microencapsulated fatty acids.

Another primary object of the invention is a probiotic comprising two organisms, such as Enterococcus faecium 301, DSM No. DSM-Nr. 4789, and Enterococcus faecium 202, DSM No. DSM-Nr. 4788. DSM is an abbreviation of the German collection of bacterial cultures of Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen, located in Braunschweig, Germany. These organisms were deposited with the US ATCC Collection No. ATCC no. 55059 and ATCC No. 53519 with the release of all restrictions following the report of admissible claims.

Another object of the invention is a probiotic which provides increased weight gain in poultry, provides better feed conversion, provides higher breast meat yields, and provides a uniform flock weight within the normal size range.

Another primary purpose of the invention is a probiotic suitable for a poultry feed additive containing microspheres using a special rotation technique using a free fatty acid matrix.

Another object of the invention is a probiotic that is stable for a period of 3 to 6 months without significantly reducing the number of organisms.

Another object of the invention is a method of rotating molding beads from dried bacteria, which makes it possible to achieve a uniform size.

Another object of the invention are spherical-dried bacterial beads that are free-flowing and easy to process into poultry rations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method and composition for promoting the growth of poultry, comprising adding a small but effective amount of a probiotic to a conventional poultry feed dose comprising dried microspheres of Enterococcus faecium 301, DSM DSM-Nr. 4789, i.e. ATCC No. 55059, fatty acid-based and dried microspheres

Enterococcus faecium 202, DSM No. DSM-Nr. 4788, i. ATCC No. 53519, fatty acid-based, wherein the microspheres are preferably formed by rotary disk drying.

Surprisingly, it has been found that promoting growth of poultry can be achieved by adding a certain amount of Enterococcus faecium 301 microspheres, DSM DSM-Nr. 4789, ATCC 55059, fatty acid-based and a number of Enterococcus faecium 202 microspheres, DSM No. DSM-Nr. 4788, ATCC 53519, based on fatty acids. Fatty acids may be any of free fatty acids, C ^ 2 ^and a C24, preferably stearic acid. The organisms are preferably present in about the same amount, but their proportion can range from about 30 to about 70% of one of the organisms, with the remainder being the other.

It is not known exactly why these two organisms provide desirable characteristics according to the invention, in particular increased weight gain, improved feed conversion, increased breast meat yield and increased flock uniformity. Indeed, this happens when both are present in a combination so that they can interact with each other, and provided that the amount is within the above range. It is through the interaction and interaction of these factors that the desired characteristics of the invention are achieved, which make it possible to significantly improve the composition, quality and processing of meat in poultry.

The amount of probiotics added to the feed ration can vary considerably, but should generally be in the range of about 0.5 to about 2.0 pounds per ton of feed, usually about 0.8 to about 1.2 pounds per ton of feed, and most preferably. more often amount to about 1 pound per ton r of feed. The number of organisms, i.e., the number of colony-forming units per gram, present in the probiotic may also be in the range of about 1.10 ⁶ CFU / g and preferably is about 2.10 ⁸ CFU / g.

When the probiotic described above is chosen for feeding in a poultry ration, the combination of the above two strains acts as a growth promoter. Growth promoters now used include antibiotics such as Stafac and BMD. Advantages of subtherapeutic amounts of antibiotics as growth promoting ingredients can be achieved by the naturally occurring organisms of the invention when the probiotic is produced in accordance with the invention and added to the feed according to the method of the invention. Furthermore, some experiments have been carried out showing that the combined combination of probiotics and growth promoter outweighs the advantages of each of the individual components and can therefore be used together if desired. In most cases, however, it is preferred to use the probiotic alone, as one of the purposes of the invention is to eliminate the use of growth promoters at all.

The method of treatment of the organisms is not critical as long as the organisms can be kept alive until delivered to the animals and brought into such a form that they are well-matched to the feed and generally uniform in size to control dosages.

A preferred means to meet these requirements is to process the organisms into microspheres using a fatty acid matrix. This procedure is described in Rutherford et al. In this procedure, the bacteria are combined with a heated fatty acid. The temperature of the fatty acid and the time of exposure of the bacteria to the fatty acid are controlled to keep the bacteria alive but to be mixed with the fatty acid. The mixture is placed on a rotating disc to form microspheres containing bacteria where the fatty acid acts as a matrix. The use of this method achieves several significant advantages. First, the bacteria are kept alive during processing; secondly, the process in combination with the rotary disk technique allows a uniformly better dosing to be obtained.

fatty acids, these factors

Third, it allows the formation of unique leads with a maximum size of microspheres for the character of the matrix, ie microspheres. Combination of efficiencies to highly stable probiotics.

In the process of the basic application, it is important to note that microspheres are formed where each bead is constituted by a plurality of bacteria in a free fatty acid matrix rather than each individual bacterium being encapsulated in a coating or film similar to a layer of fatty acid. This brings the benefits of stability and more efficient dosing in bacterial processing.

The preferred encapsulating agent is a free fatty acid Ci to ₂ ^ 24 ^- possible to use mixtures of fatty acids, but it is preferred that a single pure free fatty acid. It is also preferred that the free fatty acid is an unsaturated fatty acid; most preferred is stearic acid.

Generally speaking, it is important that the fatty acid have a melting point of less than 75 ° C, preferably in the range of 40 to 75 ° C. In order to function effectively as a matrix, it must of course be solid at room temperature. All free fatty acids within these chemical definitions meet this requirement.

In order to increase the stability of the product, the bacteria are usually added to the product in lyophilized form. They can then be revived by adding moisture.

The microspheres produced as described below are typically about 50 to more than 90% by weight of the fatty acid component and the remainder is a bacterial culture. The preferred range is about 60 to about 75% fatty acid. If too little fatty acid is used, the matrix is not suitable for protection. In contrast, when using too much, the matrix is too thick and does not allow adequate release in the intestine.

The method of the invention uses a rotating disk to form microspheres. Rotary disc technology generally consists in mixing the bacteria and fatty acid suspension perfectly and bringing the mixture at the same speed to the center of the stainless steel rotating disc. Due to centrifugal force, the mixture is thrown outwards and forms microspheres. They are then collected in a refrigeration chamber, maintained at ambient or slightly lower conditions, sorted and prepared for packaging.

While encapsulation on rotary disks is known, it is not known to produce microspheres contained in surrounding skins, nor to use encapsulation production in lyophilized bacteria.

in a matrix without microspheres or 0 encapsulation using a rotary disk generally discussed by Johnson et al. that

Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Journal of Gas Chromatography, October 1965, pp. 345-347. Rotary disk encapsulation suitable for use in the present invention is further described in detail in U.S. Patent 4,675,140, issued to Sparks on June 23, 1987, and entitled "Particle Coating Method for Liquid Droplets." However, the process described in the basic application is most preferred.

It should be emphasized that the rotational formation of microspheres provides a distinctly different product from both conventional spray drying and microencapsulation. In conventional spray drying in the tower, there is a tendency to agglomerate particles and form an irregular coating, which significantly affects the stability of the product, perhaps to a level of days to weeks. The microencapsulation builds up a shell around the object, and it has been shown that the bacteria are then too small, too difficult to maintain or become uniform in size to produce the stability of the bacteria obtained, even when exposed to moisture and antibiotics. for three to six months, and the life of the bacteria in particles with uniform distribution is maintained.

microspheres, in particular of the invention, are practically useful, using means,

When used microspheres of free fatty acids of the invention within the ranges hereinbefore expressed, the rotary disk, typically employing a 4 to 6, rotated at 2000 to 4000 min ^-1, preferably about 2500 to 3200 min ^"1, and the feed rate can be 50 to 200 g / min. The preferred conditions presently known include the use of stearic acid, use of two abovementioned organisms, a four inch rotary disc, 3000 rpm and a feed rate ^-1 bacterial suspension containing 35% of bacteria and 65% of stearic acid, 100 g / min. Under these conditions, a product having a particle size of 75 to 300 μπι with a preferred size below 250 μπι is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Giant. 1, 2 and 3 graphically show the stability of the strains using a stearic acid matrix.

Giant. 4 is a graph showing the distribution of breast meat in the feeding trials with the probiotic composition of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a graph showing body weight distribution in feeding experiments with the probiotic composition of the invention.

Figures 4 and 5 show a control experiment, an antibiotic experiment and a probiotics experiment according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

To illustrate, but not limit, the process of the invention, examples are given. Examples are described with reference to Figures 1, 2 and 3 in the accompanying drawings. Examples 1 to 4 and Figures 1, 2 and 3 relate to an earlier invention of the same agent. Example 5 and Tables 2 to 10 relate to the method of the invention for poultry probiotic.

Example 1 Example 1 correlates FIG. 1. Illuminates stability product at use two different strains Enterococcus faecium at temperatures 4 and 27 ° C. In FIG. 1 is shown stability

encapsulated Enterococcus faecium strains after encapsulation using a rotating disc apparatus using stearic acid and at a culture weight of 35%. The formation of microspheres was carried out under the above conditions, i.e. bacteria suspension stearic acid 35/65 at 60 ° C using čtyřpalcového rotary disk at a rotational speed of 3000 min ^-1 and a feed rate of 100 g / min. The beads were formed, placed in heat-sealed steam barrier bags and weekly destructive CFU samples were taken. It can be seen that the product of the invention retained excellent numbers of colony forming units (CFUs) for a storage period of up to 70 days.

Example 2

Example 2 is to be interpreted in conjunction with Figure 2. The figure shows the stability of the individual strains in the form of microspheres when admixed to a conventional diet in the presence of three poultry antibiotics. The feed ration was composed of:

fine crushed corn 54% soya flour 26% fish meal 2% dicalcium phosphate 1.5% limestone 1% soybean oil 5.5% moisture content 12%

Three antibiotics were added in this amount: 6% decochionate (454 ppm), salinomycin (50 ppm) and monensin sodium (120 ppm).

Culture was added to the mixture in an amount providing about 1.10 µg CFU / g feed. The feed was packaged in heat sealed bags and incubated at room temperature. CFU samples were taken weekly. The graph in Fig. 2 shows excellent stability.

Example 3

Example 3 is to be interpreted in conjunction with Figure 3. It illuminates the stability of Enterococcus faecium microspheres in feed in the presence of various antibiotics. The feed ration consisted of 60% finely crushed corn, 38% soy flour and 2% limestone with a moisture content of about 14%. Culture was added to mix. Pound sealed bags at 20 sampled. To feed approximately 10 ⁶ CFU / g feed and aliquots were stored at ° C and weekly for 16 weeks were

doses were included antibiotics in this amount Bacendracin methylenedisalicylate 50 g / t carbadox 50 g / t chlortetracycline 200 g / t lasalocid 30 g / t lincomycin 100 g / t neomycin 140 g / t oxytetracycline 150 g / t sulfamethazine 100 g / t tylosin 100 g / t virginiamycin 20 g / t ASP250 100 g / t furadox 10 g / t

Table 1 lists the minimum times for a loss of 1 log colony forming units (CFU).

Table 1. Time in weeks for loss of 1 log CFU count at 20 ° C in crushed feed with 14% humidity antibiotic_time storage (days)

control 103 bacitracin 88 carbadox 54 chlortetracycline 60 lasalocid 57 lincomycin 75 neomycin 53 oxytetracycline 59 sulfamethazine 62 tylosin 52 virginiamycin 112 ASP250 67 furadox 53

Example 4

In Example 4, the stability of the product after pelletization for use in chicken feed was determined. Microspheres were formed under the above conditions. The following conditions were further used in this experiment:

Crude protein, not less than crude fat, not less than crude fiber, not more than

18.0

5.0

6.0

Antibiotic (CTC 50 g / t) pellets were produced with and without the following ingredients and conditions: corn, SBM, whey, soybean oil, dicalcium phosphate, limestone, trace mineral premix, vitamin premix, selenium, copper sulfate. The culture was added in an amount of approximately 5 x 10 6 CFU / g feed. The conditioning temperature was 70 ° C and the pellets downstream of the nozzle were 78 ° C. The pellets were stored in sealed bags and weekly CFU samples were taken.

In any case, the stability of the product was not adversely affected by the pelletization conditions. In particular, the pelletized product had stability equal to that of the unpelletized product.

Example 5

The 4,560 day-old Peterson x Arbor Acres broiler chickens were randomly assigned to the litters (Table 2) with treated litter and fed for 45 days. All birds that died within the first 5 days were replaced by same-sex birds from the same van and treated equally. The composition of the basic nutrient initiation, growth, and depression doses is shown in Table 3. These feed rations were formulated to contain 1425 (initiation), 1450 (growth) and 1475 (depression) kcal ME / lb along with 90 g / t monesin. The initiation dose was administered from day 1 to day 21, growth from day 21 to day 42 and attenuation from day 42 to day 49. The following were evaluated as individual experiments: crushed negative control (control M); selected encapsulated probiotic cultures containing Enterococcus faecium 301, no.

DSM-Nr. 4789, i. ATCC 55059 and Enterococcus faecium 202, DSM-Nr. 4788, i.e. ATCC 53519, encapsulated with a fatty acid by means of a rotary disc according to Example 1 and individually present in an amount of 50% probiotic delivered to the crushed feed at a dose of 1.10 ⁵ CFU / g (probiotic M); pelletized negative control (control P); probiotic at 1.10 µg CFU / g ground feed, pelletized (probiotic P) and positive control containing 10 g / ΐ virginiamycin, pelletized (Stafac ^ 10). The initiation dose was crushed in the pelletizing experiments. Twelve seats with 35 taps and 35 chickens were used for each test dose.

Feed consumption was recorded for each group and mortality after the first 5 groups was calculated for feed conversion, body weight, days. For each adjusted feed conversion and feed conversion adjusted to body weight.

All data were scattered and differences were determined using Fisher LSD.

Prior to the experiment, the probiotic culture concentrate was adjusted with calcium carbonate. The theoretical counts for probiotics M were 1.10x CFU / g product and for probiotics P were 2.10? CFU / g product. To determine the actual count, a sample of 11 g was measured in duplicate for each product by the standard lactic acid method.

For each production mixing. The test was

Each sample was processed on Pioneer for the bacteria encapsulated phase and a test was performed to ensure an even distribution of the probiotic in the appropriate distribution in the feed and to maintain its viability during pelletization. Samples were taken from each batch at the time of bagging; for crushed products 4 equally spaced samples and for pelletized products 10 equally spaced samples (ie bags 1, 3, 5, ..., 35, 37 and 39).

During weeks 1 and 4 of the experiment, samples of uncontaminated feed were taken from alternating positions; samples were taken from the remaining teams at weeks 2 and 6 of the feed experiment.

An equal number of birds of both sexes were sacrificed to determine thoracic weight, body weight and small intestine weight and length. For each bird, chest meat yield and intestinal weight to length ratio were calculated.

All data were subjected to a dispersion analysis and the difference was determined by contrast and estimated values of the desired effects.

Sixty birds from each experiment were delivered to the university for sensory appetite evaluation.

Regardless of processing, the probiotic improved (P <0.05) the feed conversion over the respective control, while the weight gain increased (P <0.05) versus the control only in the crushed feed (Table 4). Probiotic P improved

D (P> 0.05) feed conversion versus Stafac 10, which had a similar value (P> 0.05) to control P.

The product had the required composition in terms of representation and strain (Table 5).

The probiotic was evenly distributed throughout the feed. Probiotic M had the desired proportions, while probiotic P was in an amount of 1 to 1 1/2 log higher than required for the initiation and growth feed rations (Table 6). The high numbers of probiotics P resulted from oversizing the product to ensure sufficient recovery of organisms after pelletization.

In the case of probiotics P, the samples of the floor positions corresponded closely to the numbers from the mixing test (Table 7). Probiotic M, however, decreased by 2 logs in growth and attenuation mixtures at weeks 4 and 6.

Probiotic M increased (P <0.05) versus control M both weight and chest meat yield (Table 8), while probiotic P showed an improvement (P> 0.05) over control P. Improvement in ground feed is consistent with the results in an earlier attempt. Probiotic P did not show a similar magnitude of improvement in chest meat yield as with probiotic M. This failure may be due to a better use of energy pelletizing, leaving less room for improvement.

The pelletization increased the average bird weight over crushed feed by 96 g. The probiotic increased the uniformity of bird weights (Fig. 5) with the greatest improvement in crushed feed.

Pelletization increased the average pectoral weight by 15 g compared to crushed feed. The probiotic increased the average pectoral weight and uniformity compared to the control (Fig.

R

4) with the greatest improvement in crushed feed. Stafac showed the greatest improvement in uniformity in pelleted feed.

Pelletization yielded chest meat yield by 0.53 percentage units compared to crushed feed. Probiotic M showed an increase of 0.84 percentage units over control M, which was similar in size to the pelletization result.

Probiotic treatment resulted in a shorter (P> 0.05) length of small intestine than in both controls and Stafac, in terms of actual length, body weight to thoracic weight (Table 9). Probiotic M had a smaller (P> 0.05) small intestine weight than control M, expressed either as actual weight or as a percentage of body weight or thoracic weight. The reduction in bowel weight and length in the case of probiotics indicates less energy required for nutrition and more energy available for growth, as evidenced by improved feed conversion and breast meat yields (Tables 7 to 8).

Birds treated with probiotics P had no foreign odor compared to Stafac ® 10 (Table 10). In a second experiment, it was found that the probiotic P improved the femoral taste compared to the control P. However, this improvement was not observed in the first experiment.

Table 2. Positional layout treatment_set numbers control P probiotic P Stafac ^ 10 control M probiotic M

2.6.15.17.22.26.104.109.113.117.122.126 4,8,12,16,21,28,105,106,112,118,125,130 5,7,11,18,23,27,101,107,111,116,123,129

3.9.13.20.24.30.102.108.114.119.121.127 1,10,14,19,25,29,103,110,115,120,124,128

Seat size 4.2 ´ x 15.5 ´, one pipe feeder, one suspended feeder, pine shavings as litter, energy and evaporative cooling system, well-insulated forced air heating, curtain wall design.

Table 3. Composition of the basic rations of the production phase of the ingredients -initiative growth inhibition

ground corn 65.37 67.89 74.29 soy flour 25.58 23.53 17.83 meat and bone meal 3.00 3.00 3.00 fat 3.36 3.32 2.59 defluorinated phosphate 0.95 0.79 0.73 calcium carbonate 0.61 0.62 0.63 salt 0.35 0.31 0.32 trace minerals 0.05 0.05 0.05 methionine 0.39 0.28 0.33 lysine 0.19 0.06 0.18 vitamin premix 0.05 0.05 0.05

Table 4. Production data for pelleted-crushed flooring

control P * Stafac ^ 10 control M * weight, lb 4.79 ^a 4.81 ^a 4.79 ^a 4.54 ^p 4.68 ^a feed conversion l, 871 ^p 1,827 ^a l, 855 ^{and b} l, 917 ^c 1,856 Modified feed conversion ^{1 of} 1.832 ^b 1, 789 ^and l, 807 ^{and b} 1.887 ^c 1,812 ' feed conversion modified to 9 mass l, 801 ^p 1, 755 ^and l, 775 ^{and b} 1, 897 ^c 1,798 ¹ mortality rate,% 4.40 4.64 5.95 3.33 5.60

¹ adjusted feed conversion = total feed / (live + dead weight)

O converted feed to weight = adjusted feed conversion - ((weight-4.60) / 6) ^abc P <0.05 * according to the invention

Table 5. Product quality control and quality assurance 1 2 treatments_number QC number QA ratio

CFU / g of product SF202 probiotic P 5,75.10 ⁸ 1,01.10 ⁸ 50 probiotic M 9,54.10 ⁷ 9,60.10 ⁷ 57 strains

SF301 quality control quality assurance

Table 6. Feed mix test and yield

production phase and treatment crushed pelleted yield CFU / g feed % crc initiation control P NA ^{1 2} 1,06.10 ³ - probiotikum P 2,02.10 ⁶ 1,67.10 ⁶ 98.69 Stafac ^ 10 ON 6,46.10 ³ - control M 2,51.10 ³ probiotikum M 1,34.10 ⁵ growth control P ON 4,86.10 ² - probiotikum P 3,89.10 ⁶ 1,09.10 ⁶ 91.62 Stafac ^ 10 5,25.10 ⁴ 6,42.10 ³ - control M 1,00.10 ² probiotikum M 1,48.10 ⁵ attenuation control P 8,50.10 ² 1,11.10 ³ - probiotikum P 7,04.10 ⁴ 4,91.10 ⁵ 117.40 Stafac ^ 10 8,80.10 ³ 1,79.10 ⁴ - control M 8,92.10 ² probiotikum M 1,33.10 ⁵ center control P 8,50.10 ² 8,28.10 ² - probiotikum P 8,21.10 ⁵ 9,64.10 ⁶ 118.09 Stafac ^ 10 2,15.10 ⁴ 9,05.10 ³ - control M 8,72.10 ² probiotikum M 1,38.10 ⁵

¹ yield calculated from data transformed into log ^ Q

NA = not available

Table 7. Quality assurance in flooring

treatment 1 2 4 6 center control 3,78.10 ² CFU / g feed 3,83.10 ² 8,60.10 ² 2,21.10 ² 4,08.10 probiotikum P 9,23.10 ⁵ 9,37.10 ⁵ 8,77.10 ⁵ 8,48.10 ⁵ 8,96.10 Stafac ^ 10 8,73.10 ² 1,29.10 ² 6,46.10 ² 8,63.10 ² 8,89.10 control M 3,46.10 ² 1,26.10 ² 2,79.10 ³ 2,00.10 ² 5,08.10 probiotikum M 1,43.10 ⁵ 1,25.10 ⁵ 1,75.10 ³ 1,00.10 ³ 2,32.10

Table 8. Evaluation of pectoral yield pelleted-crushed control_P * Stafac ^ 10 control M * body mass

g 2240.7 2230.1 2195,9 2143.8 2149.9 chest weight meat, g 234.4 ^a 239,6 ^a 232.0 ^a 213.3 ^p 229.6 ^a chest meat yield,% body weight weight 10.51 ^a 10.68 ^a 10.58 ^a 9.93 ^p 10.67 ¹

^{and b} P < 0.05 * according to the invention

Table 9. Intestine Weight and Length Pelleted__ Crushed Control_P * Stafac ^ 10 Control M * Body Mass

capacity, g 2240.7 2230.1 2195,9 2143.8 2149.9 chest weight meat, g 234.4 ^a 239,6 ^a 232.0 ^a 213.3 ^p 229.6 ^a weight TS, g 92.6 93.3 93.4 91.4 87.4 length TS, in 76.3 75.3 76.6 76.1 75.3 TS, g / in 1,21 1,23 1,22 1.20 1.16 TS weight, g / 100 G body weight 4.17 4.18 4.27 4.29 4.08 length TS, in / 100 g body weight 3.47 3.40 3.53 3.61 3.53 TS weight, g / 100 G chest weight meat 40.19 39.70 40.97 43.96 38.69 length TS, in / 100 g chest weight meat 33,41 ^a 32,27 ^a 33.72 ^a 36,89 ^p 33,41 ¹

^ab P < 0.05 * according to the invention TS small intestine

Table tissue thigh thoracic

10. Taste panel evaluation number of group comparisons_

Stafac ^R 10 Stafac ^R 10 vs. P XINOC P probiotic P vs. Stafac ^R 10 vs. P Stafac ^R 10 vs. P XINOC P probiotic P vs. check P correct identification attempt 1 attempt 2 sum

3 9

4 7

8 * 10

6 8

4

4 9 * evaluators were able to detect a single sample in a statistically significant (P <0.05) number of cases the number of correct individual sample identifications required for significance at 5% was 7 for n = 10 and 11 for n = 20

Claims (15)

PATENT CLAIMS A method for promoting the growth of poultry, comprising adding a small but effective amount of a probiotic consisting essentially of dried, viable stable microspheres of Enterococcus faecium 301, No. ATCC 55059, based on a fatty acid, to a conventional poultry ration. and dried viable stable microspheres of Enterococcus faecium 202, No. ATCC 53519, based on a fatty acid. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the fatty acid beads are formed by means of a rotary disk. The method of claim 2, wherein the probiotic is about 30 to about 70% one and the remainder is the other of said fatty acid microspheres. A process according to claim 3, wherein the fatty acid is a C ₁ to C ₂ free fatty acid. The method of claim 4, wherein the fatty acid is stearic acid. 6. The method of claim 1 wherein both said streptococci are present in approximately equal amounts. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of probiotic added to the feed ration is about 0.5 pounds to about 2.0 lb / ΐ of feed. The method of claim 7, wherein the amount of probiotic is about 0.8 to about 1.2 lbs / ΐ feed. 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the probiotic organism has a co number of about 1.10 ^J to about 2.10 CFU / g. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of probiotic organisms is about 1.10 µg CFU / g. 11. A probiotic poultry growth promoting composition comprising substantially dried viable stable microspheres of Enterococcus faecium 301, ATCC 55059, fatty acid based and dried viable stable microspheres of Enterococcus faecium 202, ATCC 53519, fatty acid based. 12. The probiotic of claim 11 containing about 30 to about 20% one and the remainder being the other of said streptococci. 13th probiotic according to claim 12, characterized in that the free fatty acid is a free fatty acid C-2 ^and the C24. 14. The probiotic of claim 13, wherein the free fatty acid is stearic acid. 15. The probiotic of claim 14, wherein the streptococcal organisms are present in approximately equal amounts.