A nutritional approach for the prevention of Post Weaning Syndrome in piglets

Abstract

-In this article the disturbing steps in the process leading to the Post Weaning Syndrome (PWS) in piglets and its prevention is discussed from a nutritional point of view. The proposed sequence of disturbing steps in the gut is the following: when weaning occurs at three or four weeks of age, gut development to digest a 'vegetable' diet is immature and the normal gut morphology is disturbed by stress, infection, and a low feed intake. The impaired absorption and digestion increases the amount of undigested substrate and may cause explosive growth of bacteria. The colonization resistance is disturbed and for example Escherichia coli can proliferate. Practical measures regarding feeding strategy and feed composition to counteract these disturbing steps in this process leading towards PWS are discussed. piglets / post-weaning / nutrition / gut development / Escherichia coliRésumé -Une approche nutritionnelle pour la prévention du syndrome de post-sevrage chez le porcelet. Le syndrome du post-sevrage et sa prévention, chez le porcelet, sont discutés d'un point de vue nutritionnel dans cet article. Les troubles du tube digestif après le sevrage conduisant à ce syndrome sont les suivants : avec un sevrage à 3-4 semaines d'âge, le tube digestif est immature pour digérer les aliments végétaux, la morphologie intestinale est perturbée par le stress, les infections et le faible niveau d'ingestion alimentaire. La digestion et l'absorption des nutriments sont altérées, ce qui augmente la quantité de substrat indigestible et pourrait causer un développement bactérien explosif. La résistance à la colonisation est perturbée et les bactéries pathogènes, comme certaines souches d'Escherichia coli, peuvent proliférer. Des mesures pratiques concernant les stratégies alimentaires et la composition des aliments pour contrecarrer ces perturbations sont discutées.

Effects of dietary resveratrol supplementation during gestation and lactation of sows on milk composition of sows and fat metabolism of sucking piglets

“…Previous studies showed that increasing fat and the output of other energy substances in sow milk have increased the survival of piglets and improved their growth performance (Tilton, Miller, Lewis, Reese, & Ermer, 1999). Piglets are affected by weaning stress and incomplete digestive system, and have high requirements for energy substances in diet (Dirkzwager, Veldman, & Bikker, 2005). At the same time, piglets not only need to obtain energy from diet, but also mobilize body fat to meet the energy needs (Chwalibog, Jakobsen, & Thorb, 1994).…”

Weaning — A challenge to gut physiologists

“…Since the last Symposium on digestive physiology in pigs (Ball, 2003a,b), many review papers dedicated totally or partially to pig weaning and nutrition have been published. The reviewed topics include intestinal nutrient requirements (Burrin and Stoll, 2003), diet-modulation of intestinal integrity , gut physiology , intestinal mucin (Montagne et al, 2004b), mechanisms of action of alternatives to in-feed antibiotics on intestinal epithelial cells (Roselli et al, 2005a,b), gut trophic feed additives (Domeneghini et al, 2006a), interactions between fibre and intestinal mucosa (Montagne et al, 2003), responses to fermentable fibre and gut health (Flickinger et al, 2003;O'Doherty et al, 2005;Verdonk et al, 2005) and to medium-chain fatty acids , diet composition and enteric infections (Hopwood and Hampson, 2003), nutritional approaches for the prevention of PW syndrome (Dirkzwager et al, 2005), GIT microbiology (Konstantinov et al, 2004b;Williams et al, 2005;Bauer et al, 2006b) and immunology Bailey et al, 2005;Bauer et al, 2006a).…”

Prevalence and characterization of verotoxigenic-Escherichia coli isolates from pigs in Malaysia

“…Colonization of the guts of newly weaned piglets with pathogenic bacteria often occurs as the absorption and digestion of the gut is disturbed due to dietary changes [18]. A majority of the VTEC isolates (n = 5/7) were also isolated from unhealthy pigs inferring the undesirable outcome to the health conditions of the pigs due to infections.…”