Currently, there is a growing interest in the consumption of probiotic foods due to their reported health benefits. In developed countries, probiotics have been extensively studied and this has led to the production of a variety of probiotic foods especially with dairy milk. However, the use of beverages from plant materials as a potential carrier of probiotic microorganisms is receiving increasing attention. Various indigenous fermented foods containing probiotic bacteria have been part of l...
Commercial fermented milks have health benefit potential attributed to pure probiotics used as starter culture. Lactic acid bacteria (LABs) are the probiotics used. LABs promote stabilization of the gastrointestinal microecology of humans by producing secondary metabolites like lactic, acetic and propionic acid, hydrogen peroxide and bacteriocins (bactericidal proteins). These metabolites are health benefiting. Mursik, an indigenous fermented milk product is consumed by many Kenyan commu...
Abstract: Lactic acid bacteria are one of the most important groups of microorganisms useful in animal and human health as probiotics. Probiotics are the health promoting living microorganisms and produces antimicrobial compounds such as organic acids, H2O2 and bacteriocins. Now a day, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters is questionable. In this case, probiotics have a potential to solve this problem as one of the alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters. The aim of this study was ...
The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of tiptop yogurt as a some of probiotics against enteric pathogens isolated at KIU-TH. It was conducted to isolate and identify any probiotics available in yogurt, obtain cell free supernatants (bacteriocins) and expose them to 0 selected enteric pathogens, evaluate the effect of bacteriocins from individual isolates and the combination of the bacteriocins on the pathogens. Ciprofloxacin 50mg/ml was used as a positive control. It was hypothesiz...
Abstract: Lactic acid bacteria are widely used as probiotics. Probiotics are beneficial components of the microbiota that have been used for centuries throughout the world because of the health benefits they confer to the host. Isolation and characterization of probiotic lactic acid bacteria is essential not only for understanding their individual contribution to fermentation processes but also to reveal their roles in industrial applications. The aim of this study was to isolate and charact...
A total of one thousand Oreochromis niloticus held in earthen ponds of the WorldFish Center were used in this study. Forty of these were randomly collected from the ponds and subjected to bacteriological and pathological examination where a variety of 80 bacteria were isolated. Among those 15 bacterial isolates were examined for their probiotic activity through studies performed in vitro and in vivo. Aeromonas hydrophila, Citrobacter freundii, Pseudomonas species and two Gram-positive isola...
ABSTRACT Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) culture in Kenya is mainly conducted in low input ponds where supplementary feed is given alongside pond fertilization. Excess nutrients in the culture water in form of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) may make the culture environment susceptible to invasion by disease-causing microorganisms. In the recent past, probiotics have received much attention as a new strategy in fish health management and have been documented to improve fish growth p...
INTRODUCTION The term probiotic (opposite of antibiotics) is used when we refer to bacteria associated with beneficial effects on humans and animals. It was invented in the early twentieth century by Nobel Prize winner, Eli Metchnikoff, and introduced in his study, the prolongation of Life. (Metchnikoff, 1907).Metchnikoff has shown since 1907 that Lactobacillus bulgaricus is able to eliminate pathogenic bacteria from the intestinal microflora. The actual introduction of the concept belongs to...
ABSTRACT This study was aimed at assessing the extent to which probiotics are used in the poultry feed industry in Kenya and their efficacies in broiler diets. In experiment 1, two surveys involving 100 Agro Vets and 36 Poultry farmers were carried out. 16 products were being sold as probiotics in Agro Vets in Kiambu County. The actual trade names of the probiotics are coded as Products 1 to 16 (see Appendix 3). It was found that 74.4% of the farmers used probiotics. The most commonly used b...
Abstract Mushrooms are considered as one of the notable functional foods for human consumption that have been cultivated and gathered for hundreds of years. The usage of mushrooms has expanded to a wide extent not only as food but also in the area of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. In particular, mushrooms have been appreciated and consumed for both their nutritional value and medicinal properties. Bioactive molecules, particularly polysaccharides (PS) from mushrooms have been the subject...
Even though there is plethora of scientific literature available regarding the role of gut microbiome in hypertension, but till date, there is neither clarity nor established guidelines and consensus regarding strain-specificity for hypertension in any of the existing national and international guidelines like European Society of Hypertension (ESH), International Society of Hypertension (ISH) etc. Innovative microbiome-based or targeted medication related research, which have the pote...
ABSTRACT Indigenous chicken (IC) are the most common poultry in developing world, found in almost every homestead and constitute over 89% of total chicken populations in Kenya. Contributions of IC to economy include source of income, food security and nutrition. The IC productivity is compromised by diseases that contribute to over 50% of economic losses. This study was undertaken to contribute to improved productivity of indigenous chicken (IC) of Kenya through sustainable breeding for di...
This work aimed to investigate the role of some immunostimulants and probiotics in improving the response of overwintered tilapia to Aeromonas hydrophila vaccine. In this study, 15000 Nile tilapia fry (Orechromis niloticus) were collected and divided into five groups. Group 1 was the control, groups 2 to 5 were fed diet supplemented with garlic, Echinacea, Organic GreenTM and Vet-YeastTM respectively for 5 months. Vaccination with A. hydrophila bacteria was done by the end of the feeding e...
This study was conducted in order to evaluate the potential bene¢t of Bacillus pumilus and a commercial product (‘Organic Green’TM) as a probiotic in the culture of the tilapia nilotica. Two doses of B. pumilus (106 and 1012 g1 diet fed) and Organic GreenTM (1 and 2 g kg1 diet fed) were used as feed additives and administered for periods of 1 (groups 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively) and 2 (groups 6, 7, 8 and 9 respectively) months; group 1 served as a control. Each group consisted of...
ABSTRACT Bacteria belonging to the genus bifidobacteria are reported to be the most abundant gut endosymbiotic flora in the intestinal tract of new-born infants, particularly those that have been exclusively breast-fed. This high concentration of this gram-positive anaerobic bacteria has been attributed to the prebiotic and bifidogenic factors present in human breast milk. Currently, there is limited information on the presence of bifidobacteri aspecies in Namibia. The aims of this study wer...