Commercial Probiotics: Let's Make Up A Name!
I just got back from the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, FL. One of the talks I gave at the conference was about probiotics, during which I spent a fair bit of time talking about various concerns with commercial probiotics. Part of this relates to a study we did in 2002 looking at probiotic product labels. We found that the label descriptions on most products were unacceptable, including many that misspelled the contents and others that claimed to contain organisms that do not exist.
It was quite funny when, immediately after that talk, I went to the tradeshow and saw a booth for a new probiotic product that is apparently quite popular in Italy. It claimed to contain four probiotic organisms, including Lactobacillus sporogenes. Unfortunately, Lactobacillus sporogenes does not exist! There are no spore forming Lactobacillus species, and this particular bug was renamed Bacillus coagulans in 1939! Some people market it as a Lactobacillus, presumably because lactobacilli are more widely thought of as potentially beneficial organisms. The person at this product's booth didn't particularly like the fact that I said the organism doesn't exist, but couldn't come up with a rebutal. The product also had no efficacy data or in vitro data suggesting that any of the organisms it contained had the potential to be beneficial, as is the case with most of these products.
I continue to be disappointed by the lack of good research behind most commercial veterinary probiotics. Hopefully, someday, companies will start spending some money on research instead of just marketing. There is more promise with some newer small animal probiotics, as it appears more research is being done, but that same degree of effort doesn't appear to be there for equine probiotics.
More information on probiotics can be found on the equIDblog Resources page.
Hi,
I was reading your blog on probiotics today. I appreciate that you raised this important issue. These products(probiotics in this case) normally go through regulatory agencies(CFIA in Canada, FDA or USDA in the U.S.) to get approval. How this could happen?
How was audiecne reaction to your talk on this issue?
Thanks.
Mojtaba Yegani
DVM, MSc, PhD student, University of Alberta
Good comment. Currently, probiotics are considered nutraceuticals, not drugs. Therefore, there is minimal regulatory scrutiny of any sort. As long as the product does not make a specific health claim, they stay outside of normal drug licensing requirements. In reality, many products illegally make health claims, probably because they assume no one is going to expend the effort to do anything about it.