This study examined the effects of glutamine and nucleotides on growth, intestinal villous height and immune responses of weaned pigs. Eighty weaned pigs (Landrace ✕ Yorkshire ✕ Duroc) were randomly assigned to five treatments, including a control diet and a 2 (glutamine 1·0 and 1·5%) by 2 (nucleotides 500 and 1000 p.p.m.) factorial design. There were no differences among the five treatments in weight gain from weeks 0 to 4 and 0 to 8 of the experiment. However, the food intake of treatment 3 (glutamine 1·0% and nucleotides 1000 p. p. m. ) for weeks 4 to 8 was higher (P < 0·05) than that of the control group. Intestinal villous height, and serum immunoglobulin-G concentration 2 h post lipopolysaccharide injection, were higher (P < 0·05) for pigs administered treatment 3 than for controls. Furthermore, foot and mouth disease (FMD) neutralizing antibody titres were also higher (P < 0·05) than the control group for pigs given treatment 3 when measured 3 weeks following vaccination with FMD antigen. These observations suggest that a combination of 10% of glutamine and 1000 p. p. m. of nucleotides in the diet could improve food intake and intestinal villous height and promote the immune responses and FMD antibody titres of weaned pigs.

The growth and immune responses to endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge (20 µg/kg) of piglets with and without a iron dextran injection (Fe, 200 mg/head) two days after birth are compared. Sixty-four newborn piglets from eight litters were allocated randomly to one of four treatments. The control received no iron dextran and only saline (Sal) injection on the second and fifteenth day after birth (Sal-Sal). The remaining three groups received Fe-Sal, Sal-LPS, Fe-LPS treatments respectively. On fifteen days of age, blood samples of piglets were taken at 0 h, 1 h, 2 h and 4 d after saline or LPS injection to determine immune functions and blood characteristics. The trial terminated when the pig reached 56 days and the average daily gain of piglets was then measured. Daily gain, serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration and red blood cell counts did not vary significantly among the four groups at any measuring times. Serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) concentration increased sharply 1 h after LPS injection. However, iron injection did not change TNF-α concentration responds to LPS injection. White blood cell counts of two LPS injection groups were significantly lowered 1 h following the injection. In contrast, serum lactoferrin concentration had increased significantly 1 and 2 h postinjection. Furthermore, iron injection produced no further effects on these two criteria. Iron injection increased the hemoglobin (Hb) concentration of piglets at any measuring time, and LPS injection lowered Hb concentration. In conclusion, a 200 mg/head of iron dextran injection on the second day after birth increased Hb concentration, had no detrimental effect on the immune responses and growth of piglets. Moreover, if creep feed (175 mg Fe/kg feed) is provided from d 7 after birth, the Fe-injection does not contribute to overall performance of piglets and may not be a necessity in practice.

This study attempted to determine effects of recombinant porcine epidermal growth factor (pEGF) and glutamine (Gln) supplement on the growth performance and intestinal development of piglets weaned at 14 days of age. A total of ninety-six piglets were allotted to one of four dietary treatments which comprised inclusion of 1.0 mg pEGF supernatant/kg diet or 0.5% Gln both alone and in combination. Each treatment consisted of four replicates with six pigs per pen for a 28 days experimental period. Two pigs per replicate were sacrificed and gastrointestinal tract samples were collected on day 14. Data showed that dietary treatment failed to promote growth performance. On day 14, diets supplemented with pEGF elevated pancreatic chymotrypsin, jejunal alkaline phosphatase, sucrase, lactase and maltase activities (p<0.05), but failed to alter the small intestinal villus morphology, DNA, or protein content of gastrointestinal mucosa. Diets supplemented with Gln increased pancreatic chymotrypsin activity, tended to enhance the protein contents of gastric (p = 0.08) and jejunal mucosa (p = 0.09) but did not influence the serum IgA level or the enzyme activity in the gastrointestinal tract. On day 28, the diets supplemented with Gln increasedt (p<0.05) serum IgA and the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells by PHA stimulation. However, a combination of pEGF and Gln did not have a synergistic effect on these biomarkers in early-weaned piglets. The results demonstrate that diets supplemented with recombinant pEGF supernatant indeed improve intestinal digestive enzyme activity and diets supplemented with Gln increases the immune response in early-weaned piglets.

Ninety-six weanling piglets (four weeks old) were randomly assigned into four treatments as follows: 1. control group, 2. probiotics group, 3. probiotics combined with 0.3 ppm organic selenium and 4. carbadox group. Collected data was analysed by using the GLM program of SAS (1990), and each of the two groups was compared using Duncan's test, while the GLM analysis was significant.The experimental results revealed no influence on pig growth performance by the addition of probiotics alone or with the selenium. The immunoglobulin-G concentration of the probiotics with the 0.3 ppm selenium group was the highest among the four groups, and significantly (PO.05) higher than in the control group. The mortality of the piglets (all survived) and the very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) concentration of the probiotics group was the lowest (PO.05) among the four groups for the probiotic and with selenium groups when compared to the control and carbadox groups.

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