Isolation, Characterization and Molecular Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria From Cockroaches: Implication To Poultry Industry - Santos, Gabino E.; Nicdao, Michael Angelo C. (Magalang, Pampanga : Pampanga State Agricultural Universty, 2019)
Poultry production as an important economic activity faces obstacle associated with the animal diseases that significantly affect productivity. To combat this, antibiotics are used; however, a surge in the development and spread of antibiotic resistance has imposed danger to human and animal health. At present, researches are being carried out to find natural agents as growth promoters, particularly probiotics which have been used in different industry as growth promoters and antibacterial agents. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the antibacterial activity of Lactic Acid bacteria isolated from cockroach gut and its implication to the poultry industry. Isolates from three areas (Trashcans, market, and Households) significantly reduced the growth of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (p<0.00001). Three isolates, one from each treatment, were found to have most potent antibacterial activity and were identified molecularly. Sequencing of their PCR amplicons and homology analysis using the BLAST-N application of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) suggested that the isolates belong to the genus Lactobacillus. They have 99% identity scores homologous to Lactobacillus plantarum with query coverage of 99%. These three (3) Lactic acid bacterial isolates were utilized to test their poultry growth promoting potential in Cobb Broilers. Results suggested that combination of all three bacteria strains of L. plantarum as a consortium (1:1:1) significantly increased the weight gain of the treatment compared to the control groups (p<0.001) and this treatment had the best feed conversion ratio (FCR). Results established that Lactic Acid bacteria are widely present in the gut cockroaches; some are beneficial and must be explored further as an alternative to antibiotics usage. Key words: Antibiotics, Probiotics, Antagonistic effect, Amplicons.