According to the FAO (2021)FAO. 2021. La resistencia a los antimicrobianos puede afectar la vida y el bienestar de millones de personas. Available: https://www.paho.org/es/juntos-contra-resistenciamicrobiana., untreatable infections affect people, plants and animals worldwide, even with the use of the most powerful antimicrobial treatments. This occurs due to the resistance that has developed against the latter. Currently, the FAO, the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health are working to guarantee the sustainability of agri-food systems.
Due to their dual purpose, antibiotics serve as drugs, and also as growth promoters, because they help control the pathogenic bacterial microbiota and generate greater use of feed nutrients, so there is a response in productive indicators. However, improper use and overdose in its supply leads to the formation of bacteria resistant to common antibiotics (Arenas and Moreno 2018Arenas, N.E. & Moreno, E.M. 2018. "Producción pecuaria y emergencia de antibiótico resistencia en Colombia: Revisión sistemática". Revista de la Asociación Colombiana de Infectología, 22(2): 110-119, ISSN: 0123-9392. https://doi.org/10.22354/issn.2422-3974. , Barros 2018Barros, M. V. C. 2018. Uso de probióticos en la alimentación de pollos broiler con diferente porcentaje de inclusión. Tesis presentada en opción al título de Médico Veterinaria Zootecnista, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca, Ecuador. p.71. and Mingmongkolchai and Panbangred 2018Mingmongkolchai, S. & Panbangred, W. 2018. "Bacillus probiotics: an alternative to antibiotics for livestock production". Journal of Applied Microbiology, 124(6): 1334-1346, ISSN: 0021-8847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jam.13690. ).
The European Community prohibited its inclusion in the diet for prophylactic purposes (European Parliament and Council 2003European Parliament and Council. 2003. Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22nd September 2003 on additives for use in animal nutrition. Offic. J. Eur. Union. L268/36.). In this context, nutritionists and specialists began researches to search for new nutritional additives that would be harmless to animals and humans, with effects similar to those of these drugs (Molina 2019Molina, A. 2019. "Probióticos y su mecanismo de acción en alimentación animal". Agronomía Mesoamérica, 30(2): 601-611. ISSN: 2215-3608. http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/am.v30i2.34432.). In the world, some studies have performed on the incorporation of additives in animal production, made with Bacillus spp. endospores of that have probiotic activity (Peet et al. 2020Peet, S. C. M.C., Verheijen, R., Jørgensen, L. & Raff, L. 2020. "Effects of a mixture of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Bacillus subtilis on the performance of growing-_nishing pigs". Animal Feed Science and Technology, 261(114409), ISSN: 0377-8401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2020.114409. and Raudez and García 2020Raudez, M.A.S. & García, W.M.O. 2020. Evaluación del uso de probióticos en la producción de cerdos post-destete de genética Topigs Norsvin en la Finca El Porvenir, Municipio de Mulukukú, departamento de la RACCN. Trabajo de Tesis para optar por el título de Ingeniero Agrónomo. Camoapa, Boaco, Nicaragua, p.66. ).
Cuba is no stranger to the development of biological products with a marked probiotic effect. The Centro de Estudios Biotecnológicos, of Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias from Universidad de Matanzas and the Instituto de Ciencia Animal, worked on obtaining zootechnical additives, made from different microbial groups, among which the SUBTILPROBIO® zootechnical additive highlighted. This additive is considered a commercial product for veterinary use, composed of Bacillus subtilis endospores.
One of the main objectives of livestock production in Cuba is to achieve high food production to meet the growing needs of the population. Hence, this article intends to expose the positive results in some productive and health indicators, obtained from the inclusion of this zootechnical additive in different livestock categories in Matanzas territory, as a way to increase livestock production.
Materials and Methods
⌅The study was developed at different times and in different livestock units of Matanzas territory (table 1). To measure the impact of the inclusion of SUBTILPROBIO® zootechnical additive, the same procedure was used in all the units. A completely random design was applied, with two treatments. That is: control group CG, basal diet (corn-soybean) and group I GI, basal diet + zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO®. The additive was prepared from the strains of Bacillus subtilis, subspecies subtilis C-31 and E-44, according to the methodology of Milián et al. (2017)Milián, G., Rondón, A. J., Pérez, M.,Arteaga, F., Bocourt, R., Portilla, Y., Rodríguez, M.,Pérez, Y., Beruvides, A. & Laurencio, M. 2017. "Methodology for the isolation, identification and selection of Bacillus spp. Strains for the preparation of animal additives". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 51, (2):197-207, ISSN: 2079-3480.. To measure the effect of their inclusion, productive and health indicators were taken as measurable indicators. In the production units, antibiotics were not applied as growth promoters.
| Productive entity | Livestock category | Number of animals/treatments | Supply zoothecnical additive SUBTILPROBIO ® |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dose | strain | ||||
| Unidad Avícola de Ponedoras | Layers Leghorn line L33. | Güira | 300 birds/treatments | 109 ufc/g of concentrate, manually mixed | B. subtilis C-31 |
| Baró Chiquito | 1 039 birds/treatments | B. subtilis E-44 | |||
| Empresa Pecuaria Genética de Matanzas (EPGM) | Small rumiants | Los Quinientos | 15 calves/treatments | 109 ufc/kg of concentrate equivalent to 10mL/animal/d | B. subtilis E-44 |
| Recría 308 | 18 calves/treatments | B. subtilis C-31 | |||
| Unidad Porcina Gelpis | Piglets from breeders York- Land (YL), Large White-Landrace (LWxL), and male pigs Duroc Jersey y L-3534 |
200 piglets/treatments | 10 mL/ animal/d | B. subtilis E-44 | |
Results and Discussion
⌅There are dissimilar studies on the use of bacilli endospores in livestock production, in order to eliminate the use of antibiotics as growth promoters (Milián et al. 2021Milián, G., Rodríguez, M.O., González, O., Rondón, A.J.C., Pérez, M.L.Q., Beruvides, A.R. & Placeres, I. 2021. "Evaluation of the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® E-44 in productive and health indicators in heavy pure breeds birds under production conditions". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 5(1): 67-75, ISSN: 2079-3480.). The results of the inclusion of the SUBTILPROBIO® zootechnical additive in the diets of different livestock categories in Matanzas territory, allowed to observe improvements in productive and health responses, which translate indirectly into economic and environmental improvements, since there is no need to use drugs, hence, it could be said that this specific additive and in these categories showed an impact on livestock production in Matanzas.
Perez et al. (2012)Pérez. M., Laurencio, M., Milián, G., Rondón. A., Arteaga. F., Rodríguez, M. & Borges, Y. 2012. "Evaluation of a probiotic mixture on laying hens feeding in a commercial farm". Pastos y Forrajes, 35 (3): 311-320. ISSN: 2078-8452. when they evaluated this additive in Line L33 layers, reported an increase in egg production (10 033.51/ 8 959.60), higher than the control. This was translated into an improved health response. Similar were the results obtained by Milián et al. (2019)Milián, G., Rodríguez, M., Díaz, D., Rondón, A. J., Pérez, M. L. Q., Boucourt, R., Portilla, Y. & Beruvides, A. 2019. "Evaluation of the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® C-31 on feeding of laying hens in a commercial production unit". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 53(2): 161-168, ISSN: 2079-3480., when they included the SUBTILPROBIO® additive in the diets for birds of this same category and evaluated the indicators live weight (1640.0 g/1585.0 g), intake (10780 kg DM), conversion (1.92/2.10), eggs production (15,540/15,397), cracked eggs (1,092/1,114) and disqualified (69/76). The health indicators mortality (1/4), viability (99.6/98.6 %) and death by pecking or cannibalism did not show differences between treatments.
These results allow concluding that the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO®, incorporated in the diets for birds in this category, showed a positive effect on the productive and health parameters. This allowed an economic benefit of $16,110.00 and $2,145.00 in each productive unit, and also an environmental, due to the non-use of drugs in the poultry production under study.
Hernández (2012)Hernández, Y. & Pérez. 2012. Evaluación del SUBTILPROBIO en terneros lactantes de la Recría ‘Los Quinientos’. Trabajo de Diploma de Culminación de Estudios Centro de Estudios Biotecnológicos. Universidad de Matanzas "Camilo Cienfuegos". p. 45. evaluated the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® in small ruminants belonging to Los Quinientos unit from EPGM. To determine the probiotic effect, live weight and the incidence of diarrhea, pneumonia and mortality were measured. The results showed an increase in live weight of 119/110 kg with respect to the control group. The health indicators incidence of diarrhea 1/7, incidence of pneumonia -/2 and mortality -/4, showed differences with respect to the control for P≤ 0.05.
Silva (2013)Silva, Y. 2013. Efecto probiótico de un biopreparado de Bacillus subtilis C-31 en terneros lactantes. Thesis. Universidad de Matanzas, Cuba.p.70., in Recría unit # 308 (EPGM), evaluated the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® in small ruminants. The results showed an increase in the productive indicator live weight of 169/110 kg in relation to the control group. With regard to health indicators, the cited authors recorded the following values: total leukocytes (I/L) 8.98/7.7, lymphocytes (I/L) 75.5/70.1, segmented neutrophils (I/L) 33.23/29.75, hematocrit (g.L-1) 26.58/23.25, hemoglobin (g.L-1) 13.01/10.67, incidence of diarrhea 13/29 and mortality -/2.
From the economic point of view, the EPGM achieved an economic benefit in Los Quinientos unit of $1,755.00, and in Recría # 308 of $13,806.00. The results show the economic benefit of the inclusion of SUBTILPROBIO® additive in this category. As a consequence, there was a decrease in expenses for the use of medications and the income of higher profits due to the increase in live weight. For these reasons, it can be inferred that the application of the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® improves the economy of livestock industry.
Rondon et al. (2020a)Rondón, A. J., Socorro, M., Beruvides, A., Milián, G., Rodríguez, M., Arteaga, F. & Vera, R. 2020a. "Probiotic effect of PROBIOLACTlL®, SUBTILPROBIO® and their mixture on productive and health indicators of growing pigs". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 54(3): 1-10, ISSN: 2079-3480. evaluated the probiotic effect of the biopreparations PROBIOLACTlL® (Lactobacillus salivarius C-65), SUBTILPROBIO® (Bacillus subtilis E-44) and their mixture, on productive and health indicators in growing pigs. As a result, they verified that the additives and their mixture improved all the indicators. The evaluated biopreparations produced benefits in the animals, since they improved the eubiosis of the gastrointestinal tract, which contributed to the superiority (P < 0.05) in live weight (27.15 kg/25.59 kg), DMG (408.65 g/445.27 g) and weight gain (19.42 kg/16.36 kg) and feed conversion (2.44/2.90). In addition, the incidence of diarrhea decreased (8.57/67.14 %) in the treated animals. The economic benefit revealed an amount of $46,410.00. The results confirm the probiotic potential of these biopreparations, when applied to pigs during the growth stage.
The results showed in this study coincide with many results, regarding the use of sporulated zootechnical additives with a marked probiotic effect, which are currently applied in livestock production (Sosa et al. 2018Sosa, D.C., García, Y. & Dustet, J. C. M. 2018. "Desarrollo de probióticos destinados a la producción animal". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 52(4): 357-373, ISSN: 2079-3480., Rodríguez et al. 2019Rodríguez, M. O., Milián, G. F., Rondón, A. J. C., Beruvides, A. R. & Arteaga, F. 2019. "Antibacterial activity of the PROBIOLEV® symbiotic additive in broiler chickens infected with Salmonella enterica". Revista de la Sociedad Venezolana de Microbiología, 39: 34-40. ISSN: 1315-2556., Arteaga et al. 2020Arteaga, F.Ch., Rondón, A.J.C., Milián, G.F., Laurencio, M., Narváez, G.N., Velez, L. A., Pinto, G. & Muñoz, J. 2020. "Effect of a probiotic mixture of Bacillus subtilis 20Bp and Lactobacillus brevis 40Lp on productive and health indicators of broilers". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 54(1): 1-10, ISSN: 2079-3480., Rondón et al. 2020bRondón, A. J., González, J., Rodríguez, M., Milián, G., Martínez, M. M., Beruvides, A., Valdivia, A. & Vera, R. 2020b. "In vitro metabolic activity of Lactobacillus salivarius and its effect on productive and health indicators of lactating calves". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 54 (2):1-13, ISSN: 2079-3480., Rondón et al. 2020cRondón, A. J., Rodríguez, M., Milián, G. & Beruvides, A. 2020c. "Probiotic potential of Lactobacillus salivarius in animals of zootechnical interest". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 54 (2):1-11, ISSN: 2079-3480. and Milián et al. 2021Milián, G., Rodríguez, M.O., González, O., Rondón, A.J.C., Pérez, M.L.Q., Beruvides, A.R. & Placeres, I. 2021. "Evaluation of the zootechnical additive SUBTILPROBIO® E-44 in productive and health indicators in heavy pure breeds birds under production conditions". Cuban Journal of Agricultural Science, 5(1): 67-75, ISSN: 2079-3480.).
Conclusions
⌅The results show the effectiveness of SUBTILPROBIO® zootechnical additive as an alternative in livestock production. This is associated with a group of action mechanisms of probiotics, including altered microbial population balance, enhancement of the intestinal immune barrier, particularly through secretory IgA response, and decreased intestinal inflammatory responses. In addition, what has been exposed shows the importance of applying good practices in all stages of the production of animal source food and the implications of biological safety on farms, in terms of preventing infections by improving hygiene and animal welfare.