The marketplace for dairy feed additives is saturated with products that claim to improve production, rumen health, cow health or efficiency, among other advantages. Many of these products can be classified as either prebiotics or probiotics.

Some of the major concerns in the dairy industry regarding the implementation of the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) were increased costs due to management changes and unavailability of in-feed antibiotic medication.

What are they? The use of live micro-organisms as feed supplements for ruminants is not a new concept. Particularly, feeding large amounts of “beneficial” microbes to livestock under stress or confronted with a disease challenge. Microbial products used in this manner were originally called “probiotics,” or products “for life.” However, the term “probiotic” implied a curative nature.