Most plant-origin fiber sources used in pig production contains a mixture of soluble and insoluble non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). The knowledge about effects of these sources of NSP on the gut microbiota and its fermentation products is still scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of feeding diets with native sources of NSP on the ileal and fecal microbial composition and the dietary impact on the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and lactic acid. The experiment comprised four diets and four periods in a change-over design with seven post valve t-cecum cannulated growing pigs. The four diets were balanced to be similar in NSP content and included one of four fiber sources, two diets were rich in pectins, through inclusion of chicory forage (CFO) and sugar beet pulp, and two were rich in arabinoxylan, through inclusion of wheat bran (WB) and grass meal. The gut microbial composition was assessed with terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length polymorphism and the abundance of Lactobacillus spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides-Prevotella-Porphyromonas and the β-xylosidase gene, xynB, were assessed with quantitative PCR. The gut microbiota did not cluster based on NSP structure (arabinoxylan or pectin) rather, the effect was to a high degree ingredient specific. In pigs fed diet CFO, three TRFs related to Prevotellaceae together consisted of more than 25% of the fecal microbiota, which is about 3 to 23 times higher ( P < 0.05) than in pigs fed the other diets. Whereas pigs fed diet WB had about 2 to 22 times higher abundance ( P < 0.05) of Megasphaera elsdenii in feces and about six times higher abundance ( P < 0.05) of Lactobacillus reuteri in ileal digesta than pigs fed the other diets. The total amount of digested NSP ( r = 0.57; P = 0.002), xylose ( r = 0.53; P = 0.004) and dietary fiber ( r = 0.60; P = 0.001) in ileal digesta were positively correlated with an increased abundance of Bacteroides-Prevotella-Porphyromonas. The effect on SCFA was correlated to specific neutral sugars where xylose increased the ileal butyric acid proportion, whereas arabinose increased the fecal butyric acid proportion. Moreover, chicory pectin increased the acetic acid proportion in both ileal digesta and feces.

The content and composition of prebiotic plant fiber in the diet is important in promoting gut-related health. This study investigated the effects of the dietary inclusion of chicory forage and roots on the intestinal microenvironment of pigs. Thirty-sevenweek-old pigs were fed 1 of 5 diets for 18 days, including a cereal-based control diet and 4 diets with the inclusion of 80 and 160 g kg ؊1 of body weight chicory forage (CF80 and CF160), 80 g kg ؊1 chicory root (CR80), and a mix of 80 g kg ؊1 forage and 80 g kg ؊1 chicory root (CFR). The animals maintained good performance and health irrespective of diet. Bacterial community structure and diversity in ileal and colonic samples was assessed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), combined with cloning and sequencing. Samples clustered perfectly according to gut segment with a higher bacterial diversity in colon than ileum. Distal ileum was dominated by lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and the relative amount of this group was increased by the CF160 and CFR diets. The colonic bacterial community was dominated by butyrate-producing bacteria and Prevotella. The increased relative abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria in the colon was positively correlated with the molar proportion of acetic acid and furthermore linked to the chicory forage diets (CF80 and CF160). Diets including chicory roots (CR80 and CFR) were correlated with a higher colonic abundance of Megasphaera elsdenii. The fermentation products and pH in digesta responded to diet type and were correlated with shifts in the microbiota, showing that chicory influences the intestinal microenvironment of pigs.T he application of 16S rRNA gene-based analyses has revealed a tremendously high diversity of gut microbiota at bacterial species and phylotype levels (22). During the past decade, there has been an intense focus on microbial ecology, with the aim of understanding the links between the gut microbiota, health, and diseases. However, compared to human subjects, limited information is available on the porcine gut, and more than 80% of the bacterial phylotypes identified may represent unknown species (21).Pigs are known to have naturally occurring and economically important enteric diseases, such as swine dysentery and postweaning diarrhea (9, 24). Outbreaks of bacterial diseases in the gut can impose significant constraints on pig production by reducing animal welfare and productivity. The contaminated products can also pose threats to the human food chain (9). To uncover the effect of the gut microbiota upon pig performance and health, the dominant bacterial species that colonize the gut must be identified, and the extent to which these are influenced by diet composition must be determined.Certain substrates, such as dietary fiber, escape digestion in the foregut and reach the hindgut of animals and are now a central issue in nutrition application. These substrates, commonly referred to as prebiotics, can alter gut bacterial composition, modify intestinal fermentation processes, p...

Twenty-five weaned 35-day-old piglets were used in a 35-day growth experiment to evaluate the effect of inclusion of chicory and ribwort forage in a cereal-based diet on growth performance, feed intake, digestibility and shedding of faecal coliform bacteria. A total of seven experimental diets were formulated, a cereal-based basal diet (B), and six diets with inclusion of 40, 80 and 160 g/kg chicory (C40, C80 and C160) or ribwort (R40, R80 and R160). Piglets had ad libitum access to feed and water throughout the experiment. Three and five weeks post-weaning faeces samples for determination of digestibility were collected once a day for five subsequent days. Additional faeces samples for determination of coliform counts were collected at days 1, 16 and 35 post-weaning. Piglets fed diet R160 had the lowest average daily feed intake (DFI) and daily weight gain (DWG), and differed ( P , 0.05) from piglets fed diets B, R40 and R80. There were no differences in DFI and DWG between the chicory diets and diet B. Inclusion of chicory or ribwort had a minor negative impact on the coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of dry matter, organic matter and crude protein, whereas inclusion of both chicory and ribwort resulted in higher CTTAD of non-starch polysaccharides and neutral detergent fibre (NDF). The CTTAD of arabinose were higher for diets C160 and R160 than for diet B ( P , 0.05), and the CTTAD of uronic acid was higher for diets C40, C80, C160, R80 and R160 than for diet B ( P , 0.05). Age affected the CTTAD for all parameters ( P , 0.05) except for NDF, with higher values at 5 than at 3 weeks post-weaning. The coliform counts decreased with increasing age ( P , 0.05), but was not affected by treatment. The results indicate that inclusion of up to 160 g/kg of chicory do not negatively affect performance, whereas high inclusion of ribwort have a negative impact on feed consumption and consequently on growth rate. Both herbs have a higher digestibility of fibre compared to cereal fibre. Chicory and ribwort are both promising as feedstuffs to weaned piglets, but the low palatability of ribwort limits the inclusion level.

A total of 30 7-week-old pigs were used to evaluate the effects of chicory inclusion on digestibility, digestive organ size and faecal microbiota. Five diets were formulated: a cereal-based control diet and four diets with inclusion of 80 and 160 g/kg chicory forage (CF80 and CF160), 80 g/kg chicory root (CR80) and a mix of 80 g/kg forage and 80 g/kg chicory root (CFR). Generally, the pigs showed a high growth rate and feed intake, and no differences between the different diets were observed. The coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of energy, organic matter and CP did not differ between the control and CF80, whereas they were impaired in diet CF160. The CTTAD of non-starch polysaccharides and especially the uronic acids were higher (P , 0.05) with chicory inclusion, with highest (P , 0.05) values for diet CF160. Coliform counts were lower and lactobacilli : coliform ratio was higher (P , 0.05) in diet CFR than in the control. Global microbial composition was investigated by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism combined with cloning and sequencing. Analysis of gut microbiota pattern revealed two major clusters where diet CF160 differed from the control and CR80 diet. Chicory forage diets were correlated with an increased relative abundance of one species related to Prevotella and decreased abundance of two other species related to Prevotella. For diet CFR, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus johnsonii was higher than in the other diets. This study shows that both chicory forage and root can be used as fibre sources in pig nutrition and that they modulate the composition of the gut microbiota differently.

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