Enabling probiotic delivery to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to human and animal health with new resistances emerging due to antibiotic overuse in livestock. Probiotic microbes show promise as alternatives to antibiotics but their use is limited by challenges with their production and distribution. The majority of probiotics are from a limited list of microbial species that have been accepted due to their long history of safe use and attributed health benefits. Across applications major constraints in commercializing microbes exist due to technical difficulties in industrial upscaling and viability post-processing. Of particular concern are oxygen toxicity and damage during the drying process. Faecalibacterium species are of interest as next-generation probiotics to reduce gastrointestinal disorders in calves. Unfortunately these microbes are extremely oxygen sensitive and cannot tolerate even a few minutes of air exposure. Thus a method to protect them from oxygen contamination during manufacturing and storage is necessary to bring Faecalibacterium to market. Seia Bio has developed a proprietary self-assembled coating that protects microbes from processing stressors. The goal of this SBIR proposal is to apply our technology for the protection of Faecalibacterium to enable their manufacture and distribution. This capability is anticipated to enable the application of probiotics rather than antibiotics to support livestock health.