NUTRITION
Lactobacillus acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT4529): 35 years of Italian research (1985-2020) The history of the probiotic strain Lactobacillus acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT 4529) follows that of many strains produced by Centro Sperimentale del Latte and acts as a natural solution for gut health of reared poultry. an industrial scale. All strains collected are kept in the CSL strain collection, and after 72 years of operation, the company boasts a collection of over 6,000 strains of lactic acid bacteria, a real record. The history of the probiotic strain Lactobacillus acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT 4529) follows that of many strains produced by CSL and acts as a natural solution for gut health of reared poultry.
Discovery of the strain
Alberto Giardini CSL - Centro Sperimentale del Latte S.r.l.
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Since 1948, research has been at the heart of Centro Sperimentale del Latte’s work, which focuses on the isolation and selection of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from their natural habitats (plants, animals, intestines, etc.). Once the preliminary selection phase has been completed, both in vitro and in vivo, the most promising microbial strains for use “in the field” are tested by the pilot laboratory, that is, selected again based on their ability to be successfully replicated on
- nutrition -
L. acidophilus D2/CSL (CECT 4529)’s journey started in 1984-85 (Bianchi Salvadori B. et al., 1985) with the isolation of 19 lactic acid bacteria strains from the gastrointestinal tract of a healthy rural chicken: six strains were L. acidophilus, five were L. fermentum, four were L. salivarius, two were L. delbrueckii, one was L. helveticus and the final one was L. viridescens. During preliminary in vitro selection, the L. acidophilus strains seemed to be the most promising for probiotic use in poultry, mainly due to the rate of acidification on “chicken feed” medium and the ability to adhere to the gastrointestinal epithelium of chickens in the presence of bile. Further preliminary in vivo tests on Hubbard broilers confirmed the remarkable ability of the L. acidophilus and L. salivarius strains, administered as fresh washed cells, to colonise the gastrointestinal tract of chickens and improve the balance of the intestinal microbiota (Bianchi Salvadori B. et al., 1985). However, results of comparative tests in our pilot laboratory advocated for the L. acidophilus D2/CSL
