ACIDIFIERS IN ANIMAL NUTRITION: A GUIDE PROMOTE ANIMAL PERFORMANCE

Christian Lckstdt Acidifiers in Animal Nutrition

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FEED PRESERVATION

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ACIDIFICATION

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Antimicrobial Activity Organic acids and salts exert their growth inhibiting effects on stomach and gutmicrobes through pH reduction and anion and proton effects in the microbial cell.Growth rates of many microbes like Cl. perfringens, E. coli or Salmonella ssp. arereduced below pH 5, while acid tolerant microbes are unharmed. Low pH also providesa barrier against microbes ascending from the ileum and large intestine. Moreover,small acids are lipophilic and can diffuse across the cell membrane, where, in themore alkaline cytoplasm, they dissociate and the released protons will subsequentlylower the internal pH. This reduction in pH alters cell metabolism and enzyme activity,thus inhibiting growth of intra-luminal microbes, especially pathogens. Severalinvestigations have demonstrated a reduction in bacterial count in the stomach (Klugeet al., 2004) and the duodenum (Kirchgessner and Roth, 1991; Hebeler et al., 2000;Hellweg et al., 2006). However Lactobacillus spp. numbers seem to be unaffected,or may even be enhanced (Hellweg et al., 2006). This will help promote eubiosis inthe piglet's intestinal microflora during the post-weaning period. However, the rate atwhich organic acids kill bacteria depends on the time of exposure, ambient temperatureand specific properties of the acid used. Minimum inhibiting concentrations of organicacids are specific for each acid (Strauss and Hayler, 2001), for example, gram negativebacteria are only sensitive to acids with less than eight carbon atoms, whereas grampositive bacteria are sensitive to longer chain acids (Partanen, 2001). Formic acidseems to be more effective than propionic or lactic acids against the majority ofbacteria (Strauss and Hayler, 2001). Since salts cannot reduce environmental pH, their effects can only be assertedvia acid anions. The importance of anions in overall benefits for performance can bedemonstrated by comparison of acids and salts in feeding trials, as demonstrated byKirchgessner and Roth (1987) with formic acid and Na-formate, where equal amountsof anions were added to both groups. Growth promoting effects, such as daily gainand feed conversion ratio, were around 50% in the salt group compared with thosereceiving formic acid. This appears to be due to the effects of anions, whereas thehigher effects observed for the formic acid group were due to pH reduction. Conversely,reduction of gut microbe counts seems to be due to the anionic effect. Experimentalevidence suggests that numbers of E. coli and Enterococcus ssp. can be reduced tosimilar levels with either Ca-formate or formic acid (Kirchgessner et al., 1992). Data from feed trials demonstrate the effectiveness of anions in the regulation of gutmicrobe composition and the performance promoting effects of organic salts. Changesin the gut microflora cause changes in the intestinal environment, resulting in reducedammonia and lactic acid concentrations in stomach and small intestine (Eckel, 1990;Hebeler et al., 2000). An overall reduction in gut bacteria reduces metabolic needsof microbes and enhances absorption rates of nutrients, especially energy and aminoacids (Hebeler et al., 2000; verland et al., 2000), leading to better feed efficiencyand improved daily gain (Paulicks et al., 1999; Eidelsburger et al., 2000; verland etal., 2000; Hasselmann et al., 2003; Ettle et al., 2004). This effect is most distinctivein younger animals, but recent studies demonstrate similar benefits in finishing pigs(Meyer et al., 2006).