The project № AR/106/7-280/14 (2015-2017), applied research grants, manager – Prof. of the Agricultural University of Georgia Vladimir Elisashvili, the participants – Drs. Eva Kachlishvili, Tamar Khardziani, Violeta Berikashvili, Maia Khutsishvili – Maisuradze, amount of the fund: 119 990 GEL.

The project goal was to develop a low cost and competitive technology for spore-forming probiotic production and their use in animal husbandry and poultry farming as a natural protective barrier between animals and infectious agents, which is a real natural alternative to traditional antibiotic therapy, increasing animal productivity and improving product safety. Bacillus subtilis KATMIRA 1933 and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens B-1895 were used for spore production. Fundamental studies for the first time revealed the physiological peculiarities of bacteria in submerged and solid-state fermentations of plant raw materials. Cultivation conditions (growth substrate, carbon and nitrogen source and their concentrations, specific supplements and stimulators) have been established to provide high yields of spores. As a result, the highest over the world spore yields were achieved: 10¹¹/ml - in submerged fermentation and 10¹²/g substrate - during solid-state fermentation. The bacilli cultivation was scaled up from flasks to a 7-liter laboratory fermenter (submerged cultivation) while the solid-state fermentations to the pilot level. Probiotic preparations were tested as food supplements at a broiler farm. Compared to antibiotics, the bacilli probiotics improved the birds’ productivity and feed conversion, reduced their mortality, and increased the European index.

The team of the Animal Husbandry and Feed Production Institute of Agricultural University of Georgia is an owner of the developed low cost and competitive technologies for spore-forming probiotic production. Currently, the team members prepare documentation for commercialization of the created technologies at the newly created biotechnological company.

The project results were presented at international conferences (in 2016 at the 17th European Congress of Biotechnology, Krakow, Poland, in 2017 at the International Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics, Budapest, Hungary) and in three articles in peer-reviewed journals.