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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Farmers who want to produce bigger chickens, fewer greenhouse gas-filled cow burps or healthier animals are increasingly able to turn to one tiny source: microbes.

Although probiotics, which contain microbes, and prebiotics, which encourage the growth of microbes in animals' guts, are already used in the animal health and growth, there is little understanding of how microorganisms and animals interact.

"It's quite unbelievable but … the way probiotics and prebiotics are discovered is by trial and error," said Dr. Antton Alberdi, assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Someone will say: "This microbial strain looks really good, so let's try giving it to 10,000 chickens." Usually there is almost no tracking what happens inside the animal."

Dr. Alberdi is scientific manager of a project called HoloFood, which aims to strengthen the evidence surrounding microbes and how they interact with animals, and help companies develop more effective products.

Eventually companies could make more targeted products for farmed animals that use microbes to improve the ratio of muscle to fat, make animals less stressed, stop them from getting infections, or make them grow larger with less food.

The idea is that if plants and intensively farmed animals need fewer resources—like food, antibiotics, chemical inputs—and there is less waste caused by disease and spoilage, it will decrease pressure on the environment.

"It is about meeting the need for cheap protein in a way that's environmentally responsible," said Tom Gilbert, professor of palaeogenomics at the University of Copenhagen, who leads HoloFood.

"The more efficient the food conversion … the less polluting it is," he added.

[...] Other microbes under study include those that may help produce health-boosting fermented foods, or even reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and other ruminants.

"If we can kill those methane-producing microbes—either through the introduction of other microbes or specific types of food—then there's a great deal of benefit that can be gained from that," Dr. Cotter added.

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