Acidifiers and prebiotics in the diets of nursery-stage piglets as alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and intestinal health of nursery-phase piglets (22 to 64 days of age) fed a diet supplemented with organic acids and prebiotics or a diet supplemented with colistin. One hundred fifty weaned piglets 22 days old and with an initial weight of 5.56 kg were allotted to pens based on BW in a completely randomized block design to one of three treatment diets: T1, negative control; T2, colistin (10 mg/kg); and T3, mannan oligosaccharides + beta-glucans + ammonium formate, formic acid, ammonium propionate and acetic acid (1 kg/ton). The daily feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion, diarrhea score, cecal Lactobacillus, E. coli and fecal coliform content, and proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine concentrations were evaluated. The performance results considering the whole nursery phase showed a better (P < 0.05) feed conversion for T3 (1.593) and T2 (1.602) compared with T1 (1.679). The diarrhea score of T2 was lower than that of T1 (P < 0.05) and similar to that of T3 (P ≥ 0.05). The piglets that received T3 presented a greater concentration of proinflammatory cytokines at 36 days of age than T1, similar to T2 (p < 0.05), with the exception of TNFa, where T3 was superior to all groups, whereas at 57 days of age the piglets that received T2 presented a greater concentration of inflammatory cytokines. The piglets fed diets supplemented with a combination of mannan oligosaccharides, beta-glucans and acidifiers, representing an alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics, performed similarly to those fed colistin-supplemented diets.