Overall conclusions and future directions

The aim of this book was to address the following issues: I. To investigate E. coli diversity in the porcine GIT in order to assess whether faecal isolates are representative of those found elsewhere in the gut and therefore provide better understanding of interactions that may be taking place between probiotic bacteria and commensal strains and pathogenic strains found in different regions of the gut. 2. To optimize a method that would enable assessment of bacterial strains for their ability to inhibit growth of bacterial pathogens in vitro, thereby providing a tool to compare the efficacy of inhibition by various Gram-positive probiotic strains. 3. To assess the ability of colicin producer Gram-negative E. coli strains to inhibit growth of other Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens so that the producer strains may be further scrutinized for their probiotic properties.