Understanding the value of species-specific biotics for animals

CanBiocin was spun out of the University of Alberta by three university professors. One of CanBiocin’s goals is to develop probiotics for companion animals, and the team identified its first set of strains from healthy domestic dogs. What happened next was “really more luck than brains,” Burlet said.

Burlet and his colleagues were on a canoe trip a few years ago, fishing at a remote location. His colleague, equipped with a camera and telephoto lens, saw some movement at the edge of the lake where he noticed three wolves. Shortly thereafter, the team canoed to the edge after the wolves had left. About 300 yards into the animals’ trail, the team found a freshly voided sample of wolf feces that they collected.

“We took it back to our lab and repeated the process that we had done for domestic dogs,” Burlet said. “We started to look for any potential candidate strains that might be different than what we've seen from healthy domestic dogs. And lo and behold, there were. That was the confluence of being at the right place at the right time and getting lucky.”

CanBiocin underscores that the bacteria present in a species’ gut microbiome are host-optimized thereby making them ideal candidates for probiotics. According to the company, “The diverse microbial population present in each of these hosts can differ dramatically due to having different basal body temperatures, dietary habits and immune systems. This in turn favors a unique microbial community that is specifically able to survive and proliferate within its host’s gut.”

Despite the success of his company's work in probiotics, Burlet said the industry should not be focused on one biotic.

“We’ve understood that for probiotics to be successful, they need prebiotic precursors to act as a carbon source to feed them,” Burlet said.

He added that CanBiocin started its biotics journey almost five years ago, and now the company takes a more holistic view of the field.

“When we're developing formulations, they're a complex or a compounding of prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotic compounds, because that gives us the best opportunity to support health, wellness and vitality…and species specificity does make a difference,” he said.