Reprod. Nutr. Dev. 44 (2004) 397-405
DOI: 10.1051/rnd:2004046

Preliminary assays for the development of a probiotic for goats

Diana Draksler^a, Silvia Gonzáles^{a, b} and Guillermo Oliver<sup>a

a</sup>  Centro de Referencias para Lactobacilos (CERELA-CONICET), Chacabuco 145, 4000, S.M. de Tucumán, Argentina
^b  Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina

(Received 25 June 2003; accepted 7 June 2004)

Abstract - In order to determine probiotic properties, 137 strains of lactic acid bacteria from the feces of Creole goats were screened, only six were resistant to pH 2.0 and bile salts (0.3%). Three strains identified as Lactobacillus and two as Enterococcus showed agglutination with the treated yeast. Between them, Lactobacillus DDL17, DDL19, DDL48 and Enterococcus DDE39 demonstrated high specificity in this test because the correspondent agglutination was inhibited by one sugar, suggesting the presence of a lectin-like structure in their cell walls, which could be due to adhesion ability. Another Enterococcus strain (DDE55) showed low affinity because five sugars inhibited the agglutination of the treated yeasts. The results of hydrophobic properties showed that the strains who were able to agglutinate yeasts presented similar hydrophobic characteristics as hexadecane, xylene and toluene, but high specificity was not related to a high hydrophobicity. Only two strains (Lactobacillus DDL19 and DDL48) showed aggregation with the lowest concentration of ammonium sulfate, complementing the hydrophobicity assay. Only one strain, Lactobacillus DDL48, showed an inhibition against an enteric indicator strain (Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli O111). This inhibitory action was not affected by the addition of catalase and no inhibition was detected after neutralizing the supernatant culture fluid. These strains could be pre-selected in order to complete studies focused on designing a probiotic for use in goat feed.

Key words: probiotic / lactic acid bacteria / goats

Corresponding author: Silvia Gonzáles sgonzal@cerela.org.ar

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2004