Probiotic manipulation of the gut ecosystem and its impact on body condition score in the Asian elephant

A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of dietary manipulation of the gut ecosystem by supplementing probiotics on body condition score (BCS) in 18 captive female Asian elephants of 30–62 years age for a period of two months. The elephants were randomly divided into three groups, with six each. The control group, in which the elephants received basal feed without any probiotic supplements, whereas the elephants of the group 2, and the group 3 were, fed a similar basal feed along with oral powdered probiotics, i.e. Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae @ 1 gm 1 x 10⁹ cfu/gm for every 50 kg BW/day each, respectively. An overall visual evaluation based BCS on a 5-point scale was taken once at the end of the study. The statistical analysis of the data did not reveal any significant effect of the treatments. The overall mean BCS was 3.78 and showed a tendency toward fat condition. Total 77.78 and 22.22% elephants had BCS-4 and BCS-3, respectively. No elephants had BCS-1, 2, and 5. In conclusion, supplementation of probiotics did not affect the body condition score and exhibited a good maintenance of the nutritional status.