Highly effective antibacterials
An important difference between Perstorp’s range of ProPhorce® acidifiers (ProPhorce® AC) and ProPhorce® antibacterials (ProPhorce® pH and ProPhorce® BD) is that the latter contain a mixture of organic acids together with essential oils.

Although ProPhorce® antibacterials are used in a similar way to our acidifiers, scientific research has shown that essential oils confer important added value through:

• Having a stronger antibacterial effect due to their synergistic effect with organic acids
• Being effective at high and low pH levels

Mode of action

The inhibitory action of ProPhorce® antibacterials is similar to that of ProPhorce® acidifiers, but at high pH levels the essential oil can still make bacterial cell walls permeable to organic acid anions, which can carry out their destructive activity within bacterial cells.

At neutral pH levels (e.g. as found in the crop of poultry and small intestines) an organic acid will dissociate (COO- and H+) and normally the ions cannot enter bacterial cells. However, certain essential oils make the cell wall permeable to these ions at higher pH levels, thereby enabling the organic acids to be more effective throughout the whole GIT.

Certain ProPhorce® antibacterials are used solely to fight problems with pathogenic bacteria found along the food chain, particularly on farms. Harmful bacteria like Clostridium spp., Campylobacter spp. and even pathogenic strains of enteric bacteria like E.coli can cause sever illness and even death in both farm animal and human hosts at great economic cost. Therefore dedicated ProPhorce® antibacterials against such pathogens form an important weapon in the arsenal directed at raising standards of hygiene and animal performance.