Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition

Non-invasive analysis has become a legitimate choice in wildlife biology, endocrine monitoring of reproduction and global ecological research. The development of non-invasive progesterone hormone assays facilitates the conservation and management of wild animals as the population of wildlife, especially endangered Asian elephants, is being declined in their innate habitat. The role of live microbial cultures in endocrinology has also been stated and gut microbiota was shown to affect the production of steroid hormones in the gut. This research was carried out to assess the impact of the supplementation of probiotics on faecal progesterone metabolite concentrations in 18 female Asian elephants. They were randomly divided into three groups with six elephants in each. Experimental probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were administered @ 1 gm 1 × 10⁹ CFU/50 kg body weight per dayorallyto all theelephants of LACTO (T2)and SAC (T3)groups, respectively, whereas the CONT (T1) group received no probiotic. Faecal samples were taken on the 0, 30^th, 40^th and 50^th day of the research for hormone analysis. In conclusion, the supplementation of probiotics did not exhibit any significant difference in faecal progesterone metabolite concentrations in the different groups.