Probiotics are popular treatments for any number of ailments (in animals and people), but marketing, especially on the veterinary side, massively outstrips research. A few years ago, I worked on probiotic development in horses. We found what looked like a good candidate bug, but instead of just trying to sell it, we did a proper
What is a probiotic?
Probiotics are widely available and increasingly popular as "alternative" or "natural" approaches to treatment and prevention of disease. When considering the use of probiotics, it’s important to think about what a probiotic really is. A widely used (and my favourite) definition is:
Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when given in adequate doses, provide health effects
Probiotic safety
The November edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases contains a commentary about probiotic safety. The paper, entitled "Regulatory Oversight and Safety of Probiotic Use" (Venugopalan et al. 2010), focuses on a probiotic yeast, Saccharomyces boulardii, which is increasingly being used for treatment or prevention of Clostridium difficile infection in people. Because it
Internet advice: The good, the bad and the ugly
The internet can be a strange place at times. You can find great, reputable and unbiased information right next to complete garbage. Often, the garbage is pretty apparent, but sometimes it’s dressed up well or mixed in with some good information. That’s a problem with veterinary advice and information sites.
Among the creative myths identified
Probiotics and obesity
A recent editorial in Nature Microbiology Reviews by Dr. Didier Raoult raised questions about the potential role of probiotics in obesity. It is based both on studies indicating weight gain in humans and farm animals in probiotic trials as well as some laboratory animal data. The conclusions based on clinical trials for treatment of