ABSTRACT:The weaning time is a crucial period in the management of piglets. The risk of development of post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) in piglets is high. PWD is the cause of serious economic losses in pig herds. Since 2006, the use of antibiotic growth promoters for prevention of diarrhoeal diseases in piglets has been banned. This measure also led to the investigation of alternative suitable feed supplements that would be reasonably efficient in protecting and sustaining animal health and performance. Various natural materials such as probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, zinc and plant extracts have been tested as effective alternatives to antibiotics. Recently, owing to their high adsorption capacity, research efforts have been conducted on the application of natural clays and clay-based feed supplements. The purpose of this review is to summarize the effect of different alternative components as growth promoters on the health and performance of weaned and growing piglets.Keywords: infection; swine; antibiotics; intestinal microflora; performance; probiotics; prebiotics, organic acids; zinc; phytobiotics; aluminosilicate List of abbreviations CFU = colony-forming unit; ETEC = enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli; MMT = montmorillonite; PWD = post weaning diarrhoea; SCFA = short chain fatty acids; VFA = volatile fatty acids
Review ArticleVeterinarni Medicina, 55, 2010 (5): 199-224 200 ruses (Moller et al., 1998;Song et al., 2006), transmissive gastroenteritis virus (Hampson et al., 1987; Alexa et al., 1995 Alexa et al., , 2001 Chae et al., 2000;Madec et al., 2000;Melin et al., 2004;Song et al., 2006;Thomsson et al., 2008) and others have been most frequently diagnosed.Early-weaned piglets are exposed to several stress factors, with nutrition, etiology and indoor environment of housing being particularly implicated (Madec et al., 2000;Laine et al., 2008). Noninfectious stress factors which are involved in the development of gastroenteric disorders are: -age of piglets when they are weaned from their dam (Svensmark et al., 1989;Skirrow et al., 1997), -sudden change of feed from sow milk that provides piglets with immunoglobulins (Bailey et al., 1992), -irregular feed intake (Bark et al., 1986;Spencer and Howell, 1989;Svensmark et al., 1989;Madec et al., 1998;Laine et al., 2008), -feed structure (Amezcua et al., 2002), -animal hygiene and housing conditions (Le Dividich, 1981;Le Dividich and Herpin, 1994;Madec et al., 1998), -inadequate feeder space per piglet in the pen (Amezcua et al., 2002). Numerous changes in the early-weaned piglet body can initiate PWD, such as morphological (Hampson, 1986) and functional alterations of the small intestine (Kidder and Manners, 1980; Hampson and Kidder, 1986), changes in intestinal colonization with predominance of E. coli (Melin et al., 1997;Katouli et al., 1999) and weakening of the immune system (Blecha et al., 1983;Wattrang et al., 1998).
Ban of antibiotic growth promotersRegarding the fact that weaning greatly affects general health condition of piglets, it is nece...
