There is good and bad in everything and the microscopic world of bacteria is no exception. There are good and bad bacteria and huge differences in their effect on other forms of life, humans, animals and other forms of organic matter. Some forms of bacteria are responsible for causing disease and possible death, these are called pathogenic micro-organisms (potentially disease producing bacteria) while others protect or at least support life, commonly termed friendly bacteria or probiotic bacteria, (pro = for and biosis = life).
For the purpose of this article, we can group the friendly bacteria and call them good bacteria and the pathogens, bad bacteria, this will make it easier to understand when referring to the variety of species within each group (group = genus). As a simple example we can use humans (Genus homosapien) - and the numerous species within the group.
For example, I am human but Welsh! (no rugby jokes please!). One reader may be Turkish, and another Brazilian, We are all humans, yet we have subtle differences. The animal world is similar and so too is the microscopic world of bacteria. Particular bacterium may belong to a specific group, however, within the group there may well be a number of species. This is a very simplified example, but it illustrates the point.
To illustrate this further it will help us to understand why environment is so important. Take an individual like me as an example. It is highly likely that my ancestors came from the Nordic people (Nord = North) I have blonde hair and blue eyes. Contrast this with a person from Nigeria, dark skin, brown eyes and black hair. The one dominant factor that has made us different, is environment. For example, the Nigerian is quite acclimatised to the high temperatures, put me there and I’ll fry! Too much heat is very distressing for most fair people. The modern Nigerian’s ancestors developed protection from the damaging effects of the sun by darkened skin. S/he has adapted to environment just as my ancestors became acclimatised to the very cold environment of the icy north. Bacteria are not really any different, they have an ideal environment and yet other environments may be very distressing or even fatal to them.
Bacteria can be further identified by several means - their shape is just one example, i.e. Coccus = Spherical. Bacillus = Rod-like…. Bacteria can be also be categorised by its ideal environment, i.e. anaerobic or aerobic. Anaerobic bacteria can be very sensitive to oxygen and may not survive in an environment with only a tiny concentration of oxygen. Aerobic bacteria however, are oxygen loving and like us, rely on it for survival. We can go further still and identify a specific bacterium to certain conditions for example, "Enterobacterium" normally inhabit and affect the gut. "Mycobacterium" are associated with respiratory conditions…..
In an attempt to survive, some bacteria have evolved to be able to produce substances that they excrete to create or sustain an ideal environment for themselves. Lactobacillus, (good bacteria) for example, produce an acidic substance. Bad bacteria such as variants of Escherichia coli on the other hand will produce toxins. Enterotoxigenic E. coli. is one of a number of bacteria species responsible for causing diarrhoea under certain conditions.
Environment therefore, is one major influential factor that must be taken seriously when using a probiotic either in prophylaxis (prophylaxis = disease prevention) or treatment. However, (there is always a however!) speed of growth (regeneration time) is just as critical as this article illustrates later. Furthermore, I believe regeneration time is critical in both enteric treatment and prevention of disease.
Speed of regeneration can be better understood by illustrating another situation that we can more easily relate to. Imagine you are the Commanding Officer of an airforce and you are at war (fighting bad bacteria is a war for life!) your factories are able to make one new aircraft per hour but, your enemy is able to produce 3 aircraft hour! Therefore your enemy is able to make three aircraft in the same time as it takes for your factories to make just one. It is obvious that this may very well place you in a most vulnerable situation and therefore, there is a strong possibility that you will become overwhelmed by the enemy and unlikely to withstand and overcome the onslaught from the them. When you give a probiotic that can only produce one good bug in the same time it takes the enemy to produce 3 bad bacteria you will have the same problem as the Airforce Commander.
Now relate the above example to Salmonella, very dangerous bad bacteria,(the enemy) and (Lactobacillus acidophylus, L A), good bacteria. Salmonella are capable of doubling in number, every 20 minute. L A is very much slower and realistically may double in number only once per hour. Furthermore, L A will need an acidic environment to do so! LA is notoriously unstable and very intolerant of changes in environment. Therefore, we can say with some certainty that LA is of little use to protect against the affects of bad bacteria or in the treatment of a digestive system disturbance. It is fair to say however, that in a healthy recipient, L A may contribute to the maintenance of an already healthy digestive system.
There are a number of other good bacteria that also come into the category of unreliable and relatively ineffective L. casei, for example. These bacteria are normally associated with the fermenting process of cheese and yoghurt making. Recently a glut of culture containing drinks for humans has arrived with names designed to impress the potential buyer. In reality however, the bacteria used in these products have little beneficial effect as a probiotic. They are too slow to grow and too unreliable.
So, unfortunately, in many cases, you can be wating your money on probiotics. However, armed with a little more knowledge you can weed out the probiotics that may not be relied upon to produce the desired results.
So, what should you look for? Firstly, learn the language, and read the label carefully.
Avoid products that claim that they contain:-
Species specific (these may contain a questionable mixture of bacteria)
Live bacteria
XXXX number of species (sometimes 5 or 7 species of …) of friendly bacteria (again, a questionable mixture)
Freeze-dried bacteria.
Let’s examine these claims a little closer:
Species specific : The producer is claiming that they are capable of fermenting a precise mixture of bacteria. Or, that they individually ferment every species of bacteria found in the gut of every type of bird, dog, cat, horse, pig, sheep, and blend them precisely to match the balance found in the gut of each animal species and sub-species! ………!!! Oh PLEASE!!, spare me the contempt! This is nothing short of an insult to even the average intelligence! Give these brands and anything else the Company making this claim produces, a very wide berth indeed.
Live Bacteria : This tongue-in-cheek statement is very deceiving and in my view may contravene the Trades Description Act. It is however, deliberately intended to manipulate the mind of the buyer in favour of their product. If the bacteria were live and live means metabolising, the shelf life of the product could not be more than a day or two! What they really mean is that the product contains bacteria that should be "viable" and able to metabolise when rehydrated. The ethical or correct word here is " Viable " not "live"! Again you may wish to question the ethics of the firm(s) making such claims. Some liquid probiotics may contain metabolising bacteria. However, their shelf life is very short and if not stored in a refrigerator the product will be spent out very quickly and as a result of the bacteria activity, the bottles have become ‘blown’ because of the pressure build up. Not very satisfactory at all!
X number of species of friendly bacteria : This is playing the numbers game. The fact that a probiotic may contain 2, 5 or 7 species of friendly bacteria is meaningless and in reality amounts to very little benefit! Most of the friendly bacteria in these products are unreliable and very unstable. Therefore, may not be able to metabolise. Furthermore, out of the 5 or 7 species two may be of some use and in my view, only one is reliable. Another very important factor that will influence the number of bacteria able to grow is the method used to render the bacteria dormant, i.e. into suspended animation, (see freeze drying).
This numbers game should not be confused with a legitimate CFU declaration guarantee (cfu = colony forming units). This is the correct method of declaring the number of viable bacteria in the product, i.e. "Contains 4.5 billion cells, or Colony forming units of xyz bacteria per gram of product"
Freeze Dried : This is the most common, least cost method of putting the bacteria into suspended animation. However, it is also well known that freeze drying damages and will even destroy the bacteria. Therefore, the number of viable bacteria in the product may be much lower that the number declared on the label. It is also worth keeping in mind that for a probiotic to be effective the bacteria must grow into billions very quickly! Growth merely in the millions is not ideal in relation to a probiotic’s effectiveness. Disease producing bacteria are capable of growing in number into billions within a few hours in the right conditions. To illustrate just how quickly Salmonella can grow, It has been said that one single cell of Salmonella is capable of starting a chain of events that could lead to the production of a mass of bacteria that would be bigger than the size of the earth within 24 hours, if all the bacteria formed in the regeneration process survived!
Referring to the drying of the bacteria to put them in to suspended animation, there are other more desirable gentler methods, thus reducing the potential of damage from freeze-drying! Note please that a number of firms selling probiotics claim, on their label, that the bacteria in their product are freeze-dried! About two years ago a well know firm who was marketing a liquid probiotic, publicly criticised freeze dried products – Now they openly sell a freeze dried probiotic!
Previous independent tests on a number of probiotic products indicated that the number of bacteria that were capable of growing were much less that claimed on the product’s label. We decided to obtain fresh unopened packs of a number of commercially available products to have further tests carried out by an independent laboratory.
Scientific data is not credible unless the test results can be replicated. To prove or disprove the results of earlier tests, we employed the services of an independent Laboratory (recommended by the Environmental Health Dept). The Laboratory was requested to conduct tests on a number of well-known probiotic brands – The results confirmed that, in a number of cases the actual growth of bacteria did not match the claims made on the other products label.
Each product was tested with pre-incubation and no pre-incubation for growth analysed at one hour. The results showed no significant difference in grown results between these two methods, except that some products` performed better with pre-incubation. Therefore, to avoid any claims of bias we have illustrate the best result for each of the competitor’s product tested.
Here is an illustration of the growth of bacteria achieved for each product in one hour.
| Manufacturer / Producer |
Product |
Results CFU per Gramme |
| Vydex |
Entrodex |
4,500,000,000 (4.5 billion) |
| Birdcare |
BioPlus |
250,000.000 (250 million) |
| Gem |
Strike |
180,000,000 (180 million) |
| Aviform |
Prolyte |
24,000.000 (24 million) |
| Birdcare |
Potent Brew |
19,000,000 (19 million) |
| Imported from Holland |
Aves |
37,000,000 (37 million) |
| Imported from Holland |
Probac |
2,100,000 (2.1 million) |
| Stock Nutrition |
Magic |
23,000,000 (23 million) |
Note: The best growth performance by a huge margin is Entrodex and this product was the only probiotic that showed growth in the billions.
It is glaringly obvious that the bacteria in Entrodex outgrew the bacteria in any of the other products tested by a huge margin. It is also obvious that Entrodex is the only product to contain bacteria capable of growth into the billions within or by one hour.
Three questions that require answers that are very significant to you and also of great importance to the recipient!
- Which product is most likely to be reliable in general use?
- Which product is likely to perform well when a probiotic effect is most needed quickly?
- What will the product cost me per billion bacteria (see fig ii)
Again, it is quite obvious from these results that the only Probiotic that shows enough bacterial growth to be really effective is Entrodex.
Now consider the cost.
To illustrate the cost differences, we have used the cost price of the middle pack size in each brand . (generally the most popular size)
(Figures calculated per 100gms of product, based on the advertised prices.)
| Product |
Average cost per 100g |
Cost per billion bacteria |
| Vydex Entrodex |
£3.12 |
0.006p |
| Gem Strike |
£8.25 |
0.458p |
| Birdcare BioPlus |
£2.34 |
0.09p |
The three examples above illustrate the significant different in cost of use. Once again the figures show that Entrodex is by far the most cost-effective product at only one sixth of a penny (0.006p) per billion bacteria. Gem’s Strike cost a staggering 46p per billion bug and Birdcare BioPlus 9p per billion. Based on the results shown, Entrodex is by far the best and most reliable least cost probiotic.
Probiotic! Are you wasting your money? Judge for yourself!
Copyright: Melvyn John. M. Inst. Comp Med. Dip Psychol. |
