Compositions comprising bacterial strains

A method of increasing a level of an IL-6 or TNF-α cytokine in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering to said subject a pharmaceutical composition that comprises:

• (a) a bacteria strain of the species Enterococcus gallinarum that comprises a 16s rRNA gene sequence with at least 99.5% sequence identity to the polynucleotide of SEQ ID NO:
• 2, wherein said sequence identity is 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, and (b) a prebiotic compound, wherein said administering is sufficient to increase said level of said IL-6 or TNF-α cytokine at least 100-fold relative to prior to said administering.