Japanese Raises Pig With Lactobacilli

YOU are familiar with a health drink that contains lactobacilli. That's supposed to help you digest your food more efficiently.  Now comes a Japanese who is using his own Lactobacilli to raise healthy pigs in Baybay, Leyte where he lives with his Filipino wife and daughter. He is Kotaro Nishiki who has been raising his pigs on "dirt floor", yet his piggery doesn't have the usually offensive smell of manure. And his pigs are robust even without injecting them with veterinary drugs.

The lactobacilli, Kotaro says, keep the pig stay not foul-smelling because they destroy bad bacteria, the ones responsible for the bad smell.

Actually, Kotaro does not feed his pigs with lactobacilli.  He inoculates the "dirt floor" of his pigpen with the organism which keeps on multiplying. The pigs somehow imbibe the lactobacilli, too, and this improves their digestive system.
To show that his pigpen does not really have that foul smell, he constructed in right beside the house where he and his family resides. "If it smells bad, my wife would kill me", Kotaro quipped.

Kotaro has been raising pigs in Leyte for the last three years.  He has four sows and has an average of 20 pigs at any one time in his pigpens. He fattens some of his piglets but most of them are dispersed to farm families in the locality. The farmers raise them in their yards and he gets half of the proceeds when the animals are sold.  A typical pigpen for is four meters by eight meter. It is roofed like the ordinary pigpen but instead of cement floor, the pigs live on a floor that is a mixture of rice hull, shredded coconut husk, rice straw and other farm wastes plus about 10 percent soil.  The "dirt flooring" is actually 90 centimeters deep. He digs a big hole which he fills with the shredded organic materials and 10 percent soil. The manure and urine of the pigs seep down and he doesn't have to clean with water like what other pig raisers do in their pigpens. "The lactobacilli take charge in cleaning the pigpen", he says.

Kotaro emphasizes, however, that the moisture content of the dirt flooring should be maintained at 60 percent. This is because the good bacteria thrive and multiple best under such conditions.  By doing that, Kotaro just inoculates his pigpen with lactobacilli just once before puts his pigs in the pen.  There are usually wet spot in the pigpen like where the animals urinate.  The moisture content in such spots, Kotaro says, can be adjusted by adding some dry soil. Aside from helping adjust the moisture content in the pigpen, the soil is also a source of necessary minerals for the nutrition of the pigs.  Kotaro feeds his pigs with ordinary hog rations but also gives them a lot of cut grasses which also provide the animals with vitamins.

By the way, Kotaro makes his own lactobacilli. He says that there are numerous species of lactobacilli and what he uses is what he gets from the air in Leyte. Here's how he makes his own lactobacilli.

He boils 500 grams (half a kilo) of soybeans until the grains become very soft. While still very hot, he blended it well and add one tablespoon of sugar. While the soybean is being blendered, Kotaro says, lactobacilli from the air will already get into the soybean.  After blendering (still hot) put the material in a container that does not break from the heat. This could be a thick plastic container or glass jar that can take the heat. Fill the container totally and seal it. The idea is to have no space at all for air to get inside. Under such anaerobic condition, only the lactobacilli will thrive.

Set aside the jar containing the blendered material under ordinary room temperature until it cools. When it is already cool, put the same inside the refrigerator for one week. After that period the liquid and the solid portions would have separated.  The liquid will be at the bottom while the solids will be on top.  The liquid at the bottom, Kotaro says, is the lactobacilli.
The liquid is now the seed of the lactobacilli. This is strained through a cheesecloth to harvest the lactobacilli.  To multiply this, put one liter of the lactobacilli in three liters of fresh milk (skim milk will also do), and put in plastic containers such as Tupperware and seal.  Let this stand under ordinary room temperature for 4 to 5 days.  After that, pass the material through a cheesecloth or "katsa" to strain it. The liquid obtained is almost pure lactobacilli, according to Kotaro.

You can multiply the lactobacilli indefinitely by repeating the above procedure.  The lactobacilli can be inoculated into the "dirt floor" of the pigpen by sprinkling. In a 15-litter sprinkler (rigader) put 300 cc or 1.5cups of lactobacilli and sprinkle it thoroughly on the pigpen floor.  As mentioned earlier, maintain a moisture content of 60 percent.  To maintain a better acidity of the shredded pigpen floor materials, Kotaro suggests the addition of 0.3% salt and some lime.

By Zac B. Sarian
Philippine Panorama Sunday Magazine of Manila Bulletin
Sunday, February 13, 2000

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