Postbiotic substance PS/Ent 412 and its beneficial application in Slovak warm-blood horses

Many beneficial strains can produce antimicrobially active proteinaceous postbiotic substances (PS) and/or bacteriocins. Because of promising previous results with Enterocin M, we decided to assess the effectiveness of PS/Ent 412 produced by our autochthonous strain Enterococcus faecium EF 412. PS/Ent 412 was applied to 12 horses of various ages and breeds for 21 days in a bolus diet. Sampling was performed at day 0/1, days 21, and 42 (3 weeks of PS cessation). The horses served as their own controls. Following microbiota, when using next-generation sequencing, 15 phyla were detected at higher abundance percentage (%) with the highest % of abundance in the phylum Bacteroidetes (35.38%), followed by Firmicutes (32.25%, Proteobacteria (13.36%), Lentisphaera (10.03%), Spirochaetae (4.01%), and Fibrobacteres (2.01%). For the other phyla, the % of abundance is from 0.05 to 0.65%. After application of PS/Ent 412 (activity 51,200 AU/mL), at day 21 was noted a decrease of the % abundance of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Lentisphaera, Spirochetae, Cyanobacteria, Tenericutes, Synergistetes, and Fibrobacteres, while the % of abundance in Euryarcheota, Actinobacteria, Verrumicrobia, Saccharobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Armatimonadetes was slightly increased. At day 21, an increasing tendency of PA (69.00 ± 3.91%), was noted compared to day 0/1 (67.59 ± 3.66%). Glutathion-peroxidase was not negatively affected. The values of the enzymatic, hepatic, energy, mineral, and nitrogen profiles were mostly optimized within the physiological range, as were those of the hematological parameters. Although it is necessary to continue testing, so far, postbiotics are a promising new tool to support the healthy breeding of horses.