A short history of probiotics

A SHORT HISTORY OF PROBIOTICS.

By YGA Delatte, (Copyrights).

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Most of the inventions which came to existence during the long history of Humanity, have been found by luck or by accident. A small spark can start an endless fire. The “Penicillin” from Alexander Fleming was one of them. You can add the Wheel, the gun powder, paper and many others.

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EARLY HUMANITY:

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Let´s all agree that “probiotics”, as we name them to-day, have existed since the dawn of ages. The first one, if there was a first one, was probably some camel´s milk which got sour, some few thousand years ago, and which was absorbed by some thirsty Bedouin somewhere in a desert of the Middle East or of Africa: now, this is called yogurt.

Professor Saleh Wirahadikusumah of Uppsala University (SE), wrote about fish silages and also an important work about different fermented food round the World, and especially in Asia (he was himself from Indonesia). All these kinds of fermented foods have been around since centuries, as it was one of the few ways available to keep nutrients fresh and edible, because the fridge did not exist yet. (Long ago, there were three ways to keep foods: either by drying them, either by fermenting them or by rending them basic, by the addition of salt for example).

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From Antiquity to Modern times:

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Fermented food was present in Europe also, as long as memory can recall: Bread, cheeses, beer, wine, all are fermented commodities and sauerkraut are the most known food here. Every country has its own recipe, and it has always been known, that these kinds of nutrients were beneficial for the stomach and for health.
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After the 2nd World War, the interest for fermented food started to increase for scientific investigations, due to the works of Metchnikoff and of H. Virtanen of Finland. Lactic fermentation started to be studied in universities and within laboratories, however with very limited results. Limited, because most of the experiments were done in vitro, on very small samples, less than few kilos at a time, the methodology was not settled and at its early stages, and all seemed only theoretical. Limited also, because the grant´s money allowed for this kind of research in this area of biology was scarce.

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FROM 1980-1982:

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Prior to the years 1977-1980, in the University of Toulouse (FR), some experiments in vivo were done under the direction of Professor Tournut and of Doctor Paul Morgan. They tried to see what would happen if chickens, pigs and piglets, cows and calves, horses, dogs, cats, had lactic acid bacteria added to their feed.
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Tournut and Morgan could see that something could happen with the animals fed with some kind of lactic bacteria, but it was not statistically convincing: most of the times, nothing drastic was happening. Big differences could be found, if the strains were given still lyophilized or if they were reactivated. Differences according the strain, or according the quantity given. There were too many co-factors to make some scientific conclusion: they needed larger tests on a larger number of animals, and under better controlled conditions.
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In 1980, the fate brought P. Morgan and YGA Delatte to Finland where the mink industry was in serious trouble. Minks and foxes, (more than six million of them), where fed with slaughter house scraps, fish scraps, all conserved with formic or sulfuric acid. These mineral acids were giving to the animals some serious side-effects: anemia, leukemia, cannibalism, poor natality rate, decalcification, still-births, and a fur of very poor quality.

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From 1981 to 1985:

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Experiments with lactic acid bacteria were started in Finland around 1981 by YD, while similar experimentations were conducted in Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Canada, all of these lasted until late 1985.
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It was found out that giving any lyophilized strain of lactic bacteria to these fur animals was leading nowhere, as long as these bacteria were given with feeds still being conserved with chemicals like sulfuric acid.
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Then, it was decided, first of all, to start by fermenting the animal feeds with some known strains of lactic acid, (by this, replacing the toxic sulfuric or formic acids), in order to administrate the activated strains to the animals, however, at that time, no such a technology nor any know-how existed: everything had to be created from scratch.
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Which meant: What kind of strains? How many of them? At what ratio? What had to be achieved? How long the fermented feed had to keep fresh and last? YD was left in the blue, with only the instructions from the Finnish Fur Association as guide lines which were: “The pH (acidity) must be below 4 before 24 hours, the fermented food must last a minimum of one year in exterior and at ambient temperature, no growth of toxic fungi or of toxic molds, no excessive degradation of proteins, and of course a proper and safe microbiologic environment”.
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It took YD two years to find a commercially viable solution and a specific formulation which could work every time, and everywhere: four highly acid producing lactic strains at high concentration, plus the addition of some carbohydrates at 15% - 20%, a mixing time with the fresh raw feed for about 10 minutes, and an immediate storage into a closed container or a silo, with a small vent to allow the escape of some gas.
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With the time, after many failures, YD succeeded to reach this low pH of 4 within 24 hours, YD succeeded to have containers and silos of fermented animal feed from 10 metric tons to 2000 metric tons (this in Lorient, FR), with a life-span of more than 24 months. YD even succeeded to ferment 20 metric tons of sardines in Agadir (Morocco), and to road -transport them to Vaasa (Finland), the whole cargo being stabilized at pH 3,9 during the whole trip.

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1985 – 1989:

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When fed with this live “lactic acid fermented feed” the outcome for the animals was striking: their death rate diminished, the still births went down, the animals needed less medication, the birth rate increased, the animals were far less aggressive, and the fur quality increased drastically. Even the guts of the animals, were “like silk”. These results on million of animals during 5 years, in six different countries (FI, SE, NO, DK, IR, and Canada), were statistically convincing.
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The door was open to see if Humans would benefit of this new type of treatment using bacterial strains. This was logic thinking: there was no reason, why not, as we are all mammals. Some experiments with volunteers were undertaken in France with some cancer patients during the full year of 1986-1987, (Dr.Alain Cornic and YD), which results showing to be convincing and promising. As a consequene, a “probiotic” company, named PiLeJe was created in France (1995).
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More important experiments were done by YD in England between 1987 and 1989, with more than 80 HIV/AIDS “customers”, and with the benediction of their own practicians and the benevolent eyes of Dr. Dorota Brey from the School of Tropical Medicine, London. Please note: we never claimed to cure HIV or AIDS or to attempt to cure it, we just wanted to see what would happen. Some sufferers survived few more years than expected, some had a definite increased quality of life, which helped their state of Health: from the 80 “volunteers”, more than 90% of them did skip their toxic medications which were forced upon them by Big Pharma (AZT).
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An international patent application “Treatment of Immune Deficiency” was deposited by YGA Delatte in April 1989. This was enough for the pharmaceutical establishment (namely the WELLCOME FOUNDATION, now GSK) to ban the ongoing experiments, to “character assassinate” the person behind these experiments, and to declare the use of some bacterial strains for the benefit of the Human Immune system a non-sense, a scientific heresy and a breach of medical ethics. This so-called polemic and scandal took some European proportions, the case was even brought to the respectable England´s Chamber of Commons, Delatte was declared guilty for trying a “new and unproven therapy”, and he had to pay a fine of …20 UK Pounds Sterling. He had also to close his research and his office, and had to leave England within 15 days. As a result, a “probiotic” company, called Winclove BV, was created in Amsterdam (NL) in December 1991.

What really happened in April 1989 was this: Big Pharma got scared by the new and apparently successful apparition of this innovative way to treat the Human Immune System, and everything had to be done to destroy this new theory as soon as possible, this new approach and the man who started all of this as well.

Ironically, during the same year 1989, lactic bacteria were described by the English gutty press as “human excrement (shit) bacteria mixed with milk powder”, and the then-director of Valio of Finland claimed, in the very respectable Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (April 1989), that “the colonic flora has nothing to do with the Immunity”.

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1989- ONWARDS:

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The cleverest move from Big Pharma was to shift the public´s attention away from the idea that some micro-organisms could cure people successfully. The best way was to downgrade and to destroy the whole concept, from the possible idea of “curing” people down to the most banal one of a mere “food supplement”, an analogue to any cheap yogurt like found in any supermarket, and with a permanent ban for any health claim what so ever.
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Almost immediately, in Summer 1989, a huge world-wide marketing campaign, financed by the Agro-industrial complex and by the dairy industries, started to promote the addition of lactic strains, any strains, into every type of food, into every possible type of commodities, in any possible combination, and without any scientific evidence, which was a blessing because no claims were allowed.
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These kinds of products are now called “Probiotics”. Billions of $$ have been done, millions of new and huge businesses got started, cartels have been established, fortunes have been made, the hysteria is now global, still no-one has become healthier, save for the sempiternal placebo effects.
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The 25.09.1989, a workshop, sponsored by NIZO was set in Arnhem, (Holland), to decide if some health claims could be done when some new lactic strains were added into some dairy products. Scientists present at this conference could not give any answer to this, only asking for more money for more researches…
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First in history, (April 1989) Y. Delatte emitted the hypothesis that “70% of the Human Immunity resided in the Colon”. YD, also, launched the idea that a fecal transplant could become a key therapy for some colonic ailments (Colon Fragile), this was immediately ridiculed by the medical authorities, nowadays (in 2026), it seems that this has been practiced Worldwide.
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During the same time, Y. Delatte emitted the theory that, if the colon is the key to Immunity, a colonic transplant prior to any surgical transplantation procedure from donor to receiver would help against the GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease), which would facilitate finding the proper and safer donor, and which would limit the time of hospitalization and accelerate the recovery of the operated and transplanted person.

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(The immune system of the person who will get the transplant will “recognize” as its own the new proteins which are transplanted, because the colonic flora has also been transferred from the donor to the host).

This too, has been practiced lately, in silence, for ethical reasons.
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(Bacterial and viral therapies will be the Medicine of to-morrow).
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Y. DELATTE

(Turku, FI, November 2026)

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Some references:

1:- Wiharadikusumah Saleh: Fermented Food, Uppsala University, Department of Agriculture, 1971.

2: FBA International Mink Breeders, Conference report, York UK, 19/20 April 1985.

3: H.A.P. Urlings, Journal of Animal Science, Vol. 71, Sept 1993, pp.2420-2426.

4: Dr. Alain Cornic, Attestation from 28 May 1995.

5: HIV/ AIDS sufferers’ attestations, 1989-1991.

6: Fermented Milks and Health, NIZO proceedings of a workshop held on September 25 and 26, 1989 at Arnhem, NL.

7: Dirty Medicine, A. Walker, Slingshot Publications, 1995.

8: Patent application April 1989: Y. Delatte: Treatment of Immune deficiency: WO/1989/011858.

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