The Probiotics project will focus on the isolation of clean cultures of bacteria from the digestive tract of poultry and pigs and their detailed characterisation in vivo and in vitro including all-genomal sequencing. The knowledge gained will lead to the preparation of probiotic preparations of a defined composition for day-old chicks or weaned piglets, which will significantly increase resistance against salmonella, kampylobacterists and E. coli pathogenic strains, and consequently reduce the need for therapeutic use of antibiotics. a.