Probiotics could be used instead of antibiotics

Using probiotics successfully against a number of animal diseases has helped scientists from University College Cork, Ireland, to understand  some of the ways in which they work, which could lead to them using  probiotics to treat human diseases.

"Rather than use commercially-available probiotics, we made our own  probiotic preparations containing safe bacteria such as Lactobacillus  species newly-isolated from human volunteers," said lead author Colin  Hill. "In all three animal diseases we observed a positive effect in  that the animals were significantly protected against infection."

Probiotics were also used to control disease in animals that were  already infected. The results of these tests proved that administering  these bacteria to an infected animal was as effective as the  best-available antibiotic therapies in eliminating the infectious agent  and resolving the symptoms.