Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan
Abstract
Humans and animals carry a specific microbiota consisting in part of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In recent years, these LAB are thought to be beneficial to the host, especially for gastrointestinal health.2,3 The studies about LAB strains of reptiles or LAB using in reptiles are rare. Thus, the objective of this study was to screen and characterize native lactic acid bacteria from Iguana iguana feces. The fecal samples were collected from 6 rescued juvenile iguanas. Samples were homogenized in MRS broth, then plated onto MRS agar and Rogosa agar. After 26°C incubation under anaerobic conditions, a total of forty-five isolates including Enterococcus spp. (18/45), Lactococcus spp. (14/45), Leuconostoc spp. (9/45) and Weissella spp. (4/45) were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. To further understand the probiotic potential of these isolates, autoaggregation assay, coaggregation assay, cell surface hydrophobicity, acid and bile salt tolerance test, H2O2 production and antagonist activity analysis were performed.1,4 In the results, a high autoaggregation was detected in all isolates after 24 hours‘ incubation. Three Enterococcus hirae strains could grow at pH 2 and 1% bile salt, and four Weissella cibaria strains showed excellent capability to producing H2O2. A combination of all screening trials, two Leuconostoc citreum strains and three Lactococcus lactis strains displayed important in vitro probiotic properties may be more potential application as iguana probiotics supplement.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Parasitology and Wildlife Medicine Laboratory for their assistance in the care of these iguanas.
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