In addition to the prophylactic effects due to E. coli-induced diseases, some probiotics
have also been investigated for their preventive effects in piglets dealing with Salmonella
infections. Studies with healthy piglets have shown that E. faecium has the ability to decrease
the pathogenic bacterial load (Taras et al., 2006). On the other hand, increased faecal excretion
and colonization of several organs with Salmonella serovar Typhimurium have been detected
while using a porcine animal infection model after feeding E. faecium (Kreuzer et al., 2012a;
Szabo et al., 2009). Current research further shows an influence of probiotics like E. faecium
on virus-shedding in naturally infected pigs caused by immunological changes, depending on
the virus type (Kreuzer et al., 2012b) or a reduction in the rate of porcine carry-over infections
by obligate intracellular pathogens like Chlamydiae (Pollmann et al., 2005).