Screening of Propionibacterium spp. for potential probiotic properties

• Propionibacteria were able to adhere to IPEC-J2 cells.
• Propionibacteria survived in acidic environments and in the presence of bile salts.
• Propionibacteria exerted an antimicrobial activity towards food-borne pathogens.

The main topic of this paper is the evaluation of adhesion of propionibacteria to IPEC-J2 cells and the survival at pH 2.5 and with 0.3% bile salts added, bioactivity towards pathogens and antibiotic resistance of Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii, Propionibacterium jensenii, Propionibacterium acidipropionici and Propionibacterium thoenii.Adhesion to IPEC-J2 cell lines was ca. 25–35% and significantly increased with CaCl2. Moreover, propionibacteria showed a reduction of cell count of ca. 0.5% at pH 2.5 after 3 h, whereas cell count increased after 24 h with bile salts; finally, they significantly inhibited Escherichia coli O157:H7.