A group from USDA Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA, etc. has reported that pre- and probiotics are not sufficient for protection from Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in an exclusively formula-based diet.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10255242/
NEC is the leading cause of death resulting from gastrointestinal disease in premature infants, with a mortality rate of 15–40%. It was found about intestinal bacteria that (1)Escherichia-Shigella is Significantly more abundant in healthy piglets and negatively correlates with disease severity, (2) Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Enterococcus are significantly more abundant in the colon of diseased piglets and correlates with disease severity (see below).
Although dietary probiotic Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (BL. infantis) and sialylactose (3′SL) supplementation had no effect, donor human milk (DHM) significantly reduced the incidence of NEC.