title: Effect of oral administration of Bacillus coagulans B37 and Bacillus pumilus B9 strains on fecal coliforms, Lactobacillus and Bacillus spp. in rat animal model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of oral administration of two Bacillus strains on fecal coliforms, Lactobacillus and Bacillus spp. in rat animal model.
  
  
  METHODS
  An in vivo experiment was conducted for 49-day period on 36 adult male albino Wister rats divided equally into to four groups. After 7-day adaptation period, one group (T1) was fed on sterile skim milk along with basal diet for the next 28 days. Second (T2) and (T3) groups received spore biomass of Bacillus coagulans B37 and Bacillus pumilus B9, respectively, suspended in sterilized skim milk at 8-9 log colony-forming units/ml plus basal diet for 28 days, while control group (T4) was supplied with clean water along with basal diet. There was a 14-day post-treatment period. A total of 288 fecal samples (8 fecal collections per rat) were collected at every 7-day interval starting from 0 to 49 days and subjected to the enumeration of the counts of coliforms and lactobacilli and Bacillus spores using respective agar media. In vitro acid and bile tolerance tests on both the strains were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rats those (T2 and T3) received either B. coagulans B37 or B. pumilus B9 spore along with non-fermented skim milk showed decrease (p<0.01) in fecal coliform counts and increase (p<0.05) in both fecal lactobacilli and Bacillus spore counts as compared to the control group (T4) and the group fed only skim milk (T1). In vitro study indicated that both the strains were found to survive at pH 2.0 and 3.0 even up to 3 h and tolerate bile up to 2.0% concentration even after 12 h of exposure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study revealed that oral administration of either B. coagulans B37 or B. pumilus B9 strains might be useful in reducing coliform counts accompanied by concurrent increase in lactobacilli counts in the intestinal flora in rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, ICFAI University, Kamalghat - 799 210, Tripura, India.
authors.forename: Lopamudra
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haldar
authors.affiliation: Dairy Microbiology Division, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal - 132 001, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Gandhi
keywords: Bacillus coagulans; Bacillus pumilus; acid salt tolerance; antibacterial activity; bile salt tolerance; probiotics