Compositions comprising bacterial strains

A method of treating asthma in a subject, comprising orally administering to the subject a pharmaceutical composition that comprises:

• at least 1×106 CFU/g of a dried Bifidobacterium bacteria strain, wherein the Bifidobacterium bacteria strain is the bacteria strain deposited under accession number NCIMB 42380, wherein the Bifidobacterium bacteria strain is positive for fermentation of raffinose, as determined by an Analytical Profile Index test comprising:
• a) contacting a suspension of the Bifidobacterium bacteria strain with a Rapid ID 32A strip at 37° C. for at least 4 hours;
• b) contacting the suspension with a development reagent comprising FastBlue for at least 5 minutes;
• and
• c) measuring a color of the suspension,
• wherein the Bifidobacterium bacteria strain comprises a polynucleotide sequence of a 16s rRNA gene having at least 95% sequence identity to the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 1 as determined by the Smith-Waterman homology search algorithm using an affine gap search with a gap open penalty of 12 and a gap extension penalty of 2, and a BLOSUM matrix of 62,
• wherein the administering results in a reduction of an amount of an eosinophil, neutrophil, or lymphocyte in the subject relative to a corresponding amount of the eosinophil, neutrophil, or lymphocyte prior to the administering, and wherein the Bifidobacterium bacteria strain is live.