The industrial markets of sporulating bacteria

The use of bacterial spores in food, feed and pharmaceutical applications has been widely studied. Bacterial spores have been used as probiotics for both animals and humans and represent a total annual market of about 565 M€. Some studies have shown that spores can be able to germinate and also to proliferate in the gastrointestinal tract and thus exhibit probiotic activity by bringing a small but consistent improvement in weight gain of about 3–4%. Bacterial spores have been also used as pharmaceutical agents to transport drugs to the intestine. The extreme resistance of the bacterial spores allows them to survive the stomach conditions and carry the drug to the intestine. This article analyzes the major markets for sporulating bacteria, compares the prices for the authorized bacterial spores based probiotics and also states the profits that such probiotics can bring to the animal growth. Furthermore, some other possible applications for bacterial spores are suggested in this article. Although it is not the intent of this paper to deal with the fundamental aspects of sporulation, germination or any other mechanism related to bacterial endospores, a short description of the latter is provided in order to integrate these topics and to better situate the characteristics of these microbial structures.