BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1660371
This article is part of the Research TopicAlternatives to Antibiotics in Food Animals: Exploring Natural and Synthetic InterventionsView all 3 articles
Enterocin Ent7420 -A Potential Postbiotic Additive: Effect on Growth, Immune Response and Gut Health in MRSE-Infected Rabbits
Provisionally accepted
Monika Pogány Simonová1*
Ľubica Chrastinová2Jana Ščerbová1Katarína Tokarčíková1,3Rudolf Žitňan2
Iveta Placha1
Andrea Lauková1- 1Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovakia
- 2Narodne Polnohospodarske a Potravinarske Centrum, Lužianky, Slovakia
- 3Mendelova univerzita v Brne Agronomicka fakulta, Brno, Czechia
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Increasing occurrence of methicillin-resistant (MR) staphylococci in humans and animals leads to special attention because of their difficult treatment and zoonotic character. Therefore, novel natural antimicrobial compounds directed against antibiotic-resistant bacteria are requested to overcome this problem. Currently, bacteriocins/enterocins (proteinaceous substances with antimicrobial activity produced by several lactic acid bacteria/enterococci) present a new promising strategy, both in prevention and treatment. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of Enterocin Ent7420 against the MR Staphylococcus epidermidis SEP3/Tr2a (MRSE) strain in a rabbit (food animal) model, testing its influence and protective effect on body weight (BW), feed conversion ratio (FCR), phagocytic activity (PA), serum glutathione-peroxidase (GPx) enzyme activity, and jejunal morphology (JM). Ninety-six weaned broiler rabbits were divided into experimental groups S (MRSE strain; to simulate the pathogen attack), E (Ent7420), E+S (Ent7420+MRSE), and control group (C; without substances). Higher BW and lower FCR (NS) were recorded during Ent7420 application. Decreased JM values (p < 0.05) reflect the MRSE strain´s damaging effect on the rabbit organism. Improved parameters of GPx and JM during substance combination suggest that Ent7420 may mitigate staphylococcal pathogenesis, warranting further investigation. These results suggest not only promising preventive use of Ent7420 to improve the growth and immunity of rabbits but also its protective effect against possible staphylococcal (MRSE) infections in rabbit breeding.
Keywords: Enterocin, Postbiotic, Methicillin-resistance, Staphylococci, Health, Rabbits
Received: 05 Jul 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pogány Simonová, Chrastinová, Ščerbová, Tokarčíková, Žitňan, Placha and Lauková. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Monika Pogány Simonová, Institute of Animal Physiology, Centre of Biosciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovakia
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