Sixteen 35-day-old piglets, including eight Large White (LW) piglets (a lean-type pig breed) and eight Ningxiang (NX) piglets (a fatty-type Chinese Indigenous pig breed), were fed the same diet for 105 days. NX pigs had higher intramuscular fat content than LW pigs (p < 0.05). According to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the relative abundances of the genera Ruminococcaceae_NK4A214_group, Parabacteroides, Christensenellaaceae_R-7_group and Ruminiclostridium were higher, whereas the abundances of Prevotellaceae_NK3B31_group, Prevotella, Subdoligranulum and Faecalibacterium were lower, in the colon of NX pigs compared to that of LW pigs. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that the microbiota of the two pig breeds clustered separately along the principal coordinate axis. Furthermore, functional prediction of the bacterial communities suggested higher fatty acid biosynthesis in NX pigs. NX pigs also exhibited lower concentrations of total short-chain fatty acids, propionate and butyrate in the colon (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that NX pigs exhibited higher intramuscular fat content and backfat thickness than LW pigs. The bacterial communities in the colon of NX pigs were also more diverse than those in the colon of LW pigs, which might be used as a potential metabolomics mechanism to research different breeds of pigs.
Niacin plays an important role in regulating the gut health of weaned piglets. In this study, 48 25-day-old weaned piglets (7.9 ± 0.20 kg) produced by 14 sows (3 to 4 piglets per sow) were randomly divided into 4 groups with 6 replicates in each group and 2 piglets in each replicate. Each group was fed diets supplemented with 22.5 (N1), 30 (N2), 45 (N3), and 75 (N4) mg/kg of niacin, respectively. Samples were taken at 7 and 14 d, respectively. The study shows that changes in niacin levels significantly affected the content of IgG and IgM in the serum (p < 0.05). Niacin had a significant effect on antioxidant parameters such as MDA, T-SOD, and CuZn-SOD in the jejunal mucosa of weaned piglets (p < 0.05). Moreover, significant differences were observed in the expression of cytokines such as TGF-β, TNF-α, and COX2 in the jejunal mucosa (p < 0.05). The 16S rRNA sequencing analysis showed that there were significant differences in the colonic species composition, which were also accompanied by changes in the isovaleric acid content (p < 0.05). In conclusion, an appropriate increase in niacin dose based on NRC (2012) has an important role in improving the antioxidant status of weaned piglets, alleviating intestinal inflammation in piglets, improving immunity, and regulating the structure of the microbiota.
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