[Casey76]

Not to stir up any argument again, but why would poulty have lactobacillus in their gut?  Chickens are lactose intolerant, and would therefore not have lactose in their diet to sustain a population of Lactobacillus?

And ehs and tantamount, thanks for a very interesting discussion

[8doubles]

OK both. 

This may be a very interesting topic to both of you but it goes over the head of the majority of our members.  If you wish to carry on this debate please do it by PM.

Let me know if you want to Tantamount and I'll ensure you can send PMs.

It would be nice to think that this forum allows those more intelligent than the average person to discuss subjects openly provided it does not develop into a slanging match.
Although we may not be familiar with some of the terms used we can google them if interested. Anyone not interested or unable to understand can move to another thread, there are plenty of them.
 The need to move the thread to PM i do not understand as i am not offended by people with more knowledge on a subject , the worst that can happen is i might learn something.    

[ehs284]

Sorry folks, got carried away. The useful bit is probably just the last sentence. Promise not to do it again.

However, Casey raises an interesting point which may be useful to some people with sour crop problems. The lactobacillus is given in commercial units because it lowers the pH (makes the crop contents more acid) and so it inhibits the bacteria in the crop. C's right, the bacteria won't colonise the whole gut but that doesn't matter. STOP STOP STOP
Have a good weekend all.

[Aunt Sally]

Lactobacillus ferments many other sugars too Casey not just lactose so they don't just grow where there is milk sugar available and as ehs284 says they makes the gut more acidic by producing lactic acid and this inhibits other "unfriendly" bacteria from growing.