Porcine lactic acid bacterial strains

A method of treating an intestinal disorder in a subject, the method comprising administering to the subject a pharmaceutical composition comprising at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, diluent, or carrier,

• wherein the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain exhibits heat stability when subjected to three cycles of heating, each cycle comprising heating at a temperature of 70 ° C. for a period of 15 minutes, wherein the heat stability is determined by an ability of the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain to block adherence of a pathogen to an IPEC in vitro,
• wherein the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain is lyophilized,
• wherein the pharmaceutical composition is a solid composition in unit dose form, and
• wherein the pharmaceutical composition comprises from about 106 to about 1012 colony forming units (CFU) of the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain.

A process for producing a probiotic composition, the process comprising:

• (a) culturing at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain in a culture medium and recovering the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain from the culture medium;
• wherein the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain comprises a 16S rRNA gene sequence with at least 93% identity to a 16s rRNA gene sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs 1-87 as determined by a sequence alignment performed using BLAST;
• and
• (b) mixing the culture of (a) with an excipient, diluent or carrier.

A method of preparing at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain, the method comprising the steps of:

• (i) obtaining faeces from an organically reared pig;
• (ii) freezing the faeces and dispersing in a suitable diluent;
• (iii) applying the dispersed faeces obtained in step (ii) to a suitable agar, optionally in the presence of supplemental pig colostrum carbohydrates, and incubating under an anaerobic condition;
• (iv) selecting distinct colonies of bacteria formed during step (iii) and seeding into a suitable broth, optionally in the presence of supplemental pig colostrum carbohydrates;
• (v) incubating the seeded colonies obtained in step (iv);
• and
• (vi) obtaining an aliquot of the incubated broth, the aliquot comprising at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain;
• wherein the at least one porcine lactic acid bacteria strain comprises a 16S rRNA gene sequence with at least 93% identity to a 16s rRNA gene sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs 1-87 as determined by a sequence alignment performed using BLAST.