Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis as a tool to determine batch similarity of probiotic cultures of porcine cecal bacteria.

A continuous-flow porcine cecal bacterial culture has been used experimentally as treatment against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in weanling pigs. Periodically, the cultures must be started from frozen stock. Our results indicate that denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis can be applied as an indirect indication of culture similarity for each new batch generated from frozen stock.