This study determined the potential of formic acid plus monolaurin (FA + ML) as an alternative to antibiotics in diet when piglets are challenged with ETEC. Piglets fed the FA + ML diet had lower fecal score and rectal temperature after the ETEC challenge. In addition, FA + ML supplementation induced lower plasma TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β concentration postchallenge, downregulated the mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and TLR4 in the ileum and TLR4 and CFTR in the jejunum. Phosphorylation levels of NF-κB p65 and MAPK p38 were reduced in the ileum of piglets fed FA + ML diet. Supplementation of FA + ML increased the relative abundance of genera Lactobacillus especially Lactobacillus amylovorus species and decreased the genus abundances of Actinobacillus, unidentified Enterobacteriaceae, Moraxella. Collectively, the combination of formic acid and monolaurin in diets have the potential to be an antibiotic alternative to mitigate inflammatory response in piglets challenged with ETEC.

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This study aims to evaluate whether diets containing mixture of formic and propionic acid alone or supplemented with either capric acid or Bacillus Licheniformis can alleviate immune inflammatory response of piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). A total of 30 weaning pigs were assigned to 5 diets, without additive (CON), with antibiotics (ATB), with 1% organic acid (OA; 64% formic and 25% propionic acid), with OA plus 0.2% capric acid (OA + CRA), and with OA plus 0.02% probiotic (Bacillus Licheniformis; OA + PB). After oral challenge with ETEC on day 10, the feces and plasma of all pigs were collected at different time points. Four additive treatments all decreased rectal temperature (RT) at 9 h and fecal scores (FS) at 24 h after challenge (P < 0.05), while at 9 h after challenge, inclusion of OA induced a decrease of RT compared with OA + CRA and OA + PB (P < 0.05). In plasma, concentration of interleukin (IL)-1β was reduced with the addition of ATB and OA at 24 h and 48 h after challenge and it is lower in OA group than OA + CRA group at 24 h after challenge (P < 0.05). Diets with ATB, OA, and OA + PB caused a decrease of the concentrations of IL-6 in plasma at 9 h after challenge (P < 0.05). The four additives treated piglets showed decreased concentrations of plasma tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ at 9 h and 24 h after challenge, respectively (P < 0.05). In conclusion, OA supplementation alleviated the inflammatory response and reduced diarrhea incidence in piglets challenged with ETEC. However, no further improvements were observed when OA supplemented with CRA or probiotics.

A 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (rearing room with or without pad-fan cooling × diet with or without 2.5 kg/t organic acid) was used to evaluate the effect of pad-fan cooling and dietary organic acid supplementation during perinatal period on reproductive performance and antioxidant status of sows in hot weather. This study was conducted in a subtropical city in Guangdong Province in South China between August and October, 2015. At day 85 of gestation, a total of 112 sows were randomly assigned to the four treatments with 28 sows per treatment, and maintained until day 21 of lactation, and the feeding trial lasted for 51 days. During the experimental period, room temperature and humidity were recorded hourly. The lactation feed intake of sows (P = 0.109) and stillbirths (P < 0.05) increased when the sows were reared in the room with the pad-fan cooling against the room without pad-fan cooling. The number of weak newborns per litter and the malondialdehyde content in days 14 and 21 milk decreased (P < 0.05), while the lactation feed intake of sows, weaned litter weights, and individual pig weights increased when the sows were fed the organic acid (P < 0.05). In conclusion, pad-fan cooling in rearing room improved the lactation feed intake of sows, and dietary organic acid supplementation improved reproductive performance and milk antioxidant status of sows. Pad-fan cooling is recommended in farrowing room, but not in gestating room.

Encapsulation of fat may facilitate digestion and absorption of fat in nursery pigs. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate 1) effects of encapsulation of palm oil (PO) and coconut oil (CO) on growth performance, feed intake, feed efficiency, and blood parameters, and 2) effects of encapsulation of PO and CO on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients, and the activity of digestive enzymes in nursery pigs. In Exp. 1, 540 pigs (28 d of age, 8.23 ± 0.22 kg BW) were allotted to five treatments based on a randomized complete block design (as-fed basis). Pigs were fed basal diets with five different fat sources: 6.0% soybean oil (SBO), 6.0% PO, 6.0% PO from encapsulated fat (EPO), 6.0% CO, and 6.0% CO from encapsulated fat (ECO), respectively, with six pens per treatment and 18 pigs per pen for a 4-wk feeding trial. Dried casein and whey powder used for encapsulation were included at identical levels in all diets. Pigs fed EPO had increased (P < 0.05) ADG during days 0 to 14 and overall compared to pigs fed SBO and PO, whereas ADG of pigs fed ECO was not different from pigs fed EPO and CO. There were no differences in ADFI among treatments. Pigs fed EPO had increased G:F (P < 0.05) during days 0 to 14 compared to SBO, PO, and CO. Serum urea nitrogen concentrations in pigs fed EPO, CO, and ECO were lower (P < 0.05) than that of pigs fed SBO and PO. In Exp. 2, 30 pigs (28 d of age, 8.13 ± 0.10 kg BW) were housed individually (n = 6 per treatment) and allotted to five treatments as described in Exp.1. Pigs were fed ad libitum for 4 wk to measure ATTD of diets weekly and digestive enzyme activity at week 4. Pigs fed EPO, CO, and ECO had increased (P < 0.05) ATTD of DM and GE compared to pigs fed SBO and PO. Pigs fed SBO had reduced (P < 0.05) ATTD of CP compared to other treatments. Pigs fed PO had reduced (P < 0.05) ATTD of ether extracts (EE) compared to other treatments. Pigs fed PO had greater (P < 0.05) trypsin activity in the pancreas than pigs fed SBO and CO. Pigs fed PO tended to have lower (P = 0.073) pancreatic lipase activity compared to other treatments, whereas dietary treatments had no effect on pancreatic amylase activity. In conclusion, this study indicates that encapsulation of PO improved growth performance and ATTD of diets in nursery pigs, whereas the limited effects of encapsulated CO were likely due to the high digestibility of the medium-chain triglycerides abundant in CO.

In the hydrometallurgical process of zinc production, the residue from the leaching stage is an important intermediate product and is treated in a Waelz kiln to recover valuable metals. To ensure optimal results during the Waelz kiln process, it is necessary to pre-treat the residues by drying them first due to their higher water content. This work studies the residue’s drying process using microwave technology. The study results indicate that microwave technology better removes the residue’s oxygen functional groups and moisture. The dehydration process’s effective diffusion coefficient increases as the microwave’s heating power, the initial moisture content, and the initial mass increase. The Page model is appropriate for imitating the drying process, and the activation energy of the drying process for the residues is −13.11217 g/W. These results indicate that microwave technology efficiently dries the residues from the leaching stage. Furthermore, this study provides a theoretical basis and experimental data for the industrial application of microwave drying.

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