The Role of Probiotics in Animal Health
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: foodborne pathogens; antimicrobial agents; food by-products; food bioactive compounds; food control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Probiotics are live microorganisms considered a safe and effective measure to promote animal health when administered in adequate amounts. Probiotics are used as a feed additive to improve intestinal microbial balance. The benefits include the reduction in infection risks, improvement of growth performance, feed utilization, and stress response in animals. It can also be used as an alternative to prophylactic use of antibiotics; therefore, it is important when facing the challenge of antimicrobial resistance.
Probiotics include various bacterial species, bacteriophages, microalgae, and yeasts, and can be used in terrestrial animals and aquaculture. Commercially available feed additives may contain mono or multi-strains and work through bactericidal and bacteriostatic mechanisms. Bactericidal action is responsible for the direct inactivation of pathogens in the gut with the help of bacteriocins, hydrogen peroxide, and organic acids, while competition for nutrients, adhesion sites, and changes in environmental conditions may lead to a bacteriostatic effect.
The use of probiotics may also face several challenges. The selection of suitable microorganisms or their combinations, the amount of viable cells, their survivability, and the application type for various animal species, taking into account age and physiological state, must be considered.
This Special Issue welcomes original articles on studies of microorganisms known as probiotics and their usage in animal health promotion.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Potential new probiotic species and their safety concerns; Molecular methods as a way to characterize the mechanism of action and choose suitable formulations of probiotic strains; Probiotics as a disease control measure in animal life; Probiotics as a means to control antimicrobial resistance; Efficiency related to application method and the fate of probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract.
Dr. Jose Manuel Silvan
Guest Editor
Dr. Gintare Zakariene
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- probiotic strains
- microbiota–host interaction
- feed additive
- antibiotic resistance
- animal health
- growth performance
- meat quality
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