Effect of probiotic-, bacteriophage-, or organic acid-supplemented feeds or fermented soybean meal on the growth performance, acute-phase response, and bacterial shedding of grower pigs challenged with Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium1

Abstract

A 28-d experiment evaluated the growth performance, acute-phase response, and bacterial shedding patterns in pigs (n = 108; initially, 38.7 ± 6.7 kg) fed 6 treatment diets, including a control diet with no antimicrobial agents (CON), a positive control diet containing chlortetracycline, 100 mg/kg (CT), a diet containing anti-Salmonella Typhimurium bacteriophage, 3 × 10(9) plaque-forming units/kg of feed (ASB), Lactobacillus plantarum CJLP56, 6.5 × 10(8) cfu/kg of feed (LP), 0.2% microencapsulated organic acids (MOA), or 5% fermented soybean meal (FSM). Pigs were fed the diets for 2 wk before and 2 wk after challenging orally with Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (SalT). Before bacterial challenge, ADFI was similar in all groups. After SalT challenge, ADFI of CON pigs was less (P < 0.05) than all other groups. Before challenge, pigs on MOA, FSM, and CT diets had greater (P < 0.05) ADG and G:F than CON pigs. After challenge (wk 3 to 4) and during the overall experimental period (wk 1 to 4), ADG of all treatment groups and G:F of all treatment groups except the LP group were greater (P < 0.05) than those of CON pigs. Relative to all other treatments, CON and LP pigs had greater (P < 0.05) bacterial shedding scores on d 7 after SalT challenge. At d 14 postchallenge, shedding scores declined (P < 0.05) in all treatment groups compared with CON pigs. Serum haptoglobin for all treatment groups increased from d 0 concentrations on d 6 postchallenge and declined to prechallenge concentrations on d 13 (P < 0.05). Circulating IGF-I concentrations declined from 2 to 6 d postchallenge and increased again by d 13 in ASB and LP groups, did not decline in FSM and CT groups, and continuously declined through d 13 in CON and LP groups (P < 0.05). However, in MOA group, IGF-I concentrations declined from preinfection concentrations on d 2, increased on d 4, and declined again until d 13 (P < 0.05). The serum concentrations of the cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β were not generally affected by SalT challenge. In conclusion, acute infection of growing pigs with SalT was associated with short-term febrile responses in most pigs and reductions in ADFI and ADG of CON pigs. Compared with the CON diet, ASB, FSM, and MOA diets had a similar benefit to the antibiotic-supplemented diet in improving the performance of growing pigs, especially after bacterial challenge. However, further work needs to be done to better understand their mode of action in this class of pigs.

Microencapsulated acids associated with essential oils and acid salts for piglets in the nursery phase

“…Our results also corroborate those of Gebru et al (2010). Specifically, we observed that including a blend of microencapsulated organic and inorganic acids in the diet had an effect on Salmonella that was similar to that of chlortetracycline in the control 6 and 14 days after contamination.…”

Effect of dietary Bacillus subtilis on proportion of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes in swine intestine and lipid metabolism

“…Our study found that probiotics improved ADG and ADFI and significantly decreased F/G (P < 0.05) in finishing pigs. Similar findings have been reported in studies when probiotics were given to piglets (Choi et al, 2011) and growing-finishing pigs (Gebru et al, 2010;Meng et al, 2010). There are also reports that probiotics have no positive effects on ADG and feed conversion of pigs (Kornegay and Risley, 1996;Estienne and Hartsock, 2005); this may be caused by different probiotic strains used in the experiments.…”

Dietary bacteriophages as an alternative for zinc oxide or organic acids to control diarrhoea and improve the performance of weanling piglets

“…This shows that bacteriophage is a better feed additive compared with its counterparts; moreover, piglets supplemented with BA also showed improved performance compared to the control group. The positive effects of BA in the current study are in line with previous studies where supplementation with BA in single (Gebru et al 2010) or cocktail ) form improved ADG in pigs. An increase in growth rate could be attributed to the reduction of pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and Clostridium spp.…”

“…Among various non-antibiotic alternatives, OA (Lambert and Stratford 1999;Suryanarayana et al 2012) and zinc sources (Hollis et al 2005) have been used previously. Further, BA have received increasing attention due to their natural antimicrobial properties and the lower propensity for the development of bacterial resistance (Gebru et al 2010;Wittebole et al 2014). The transient period in which weaning pigs progress from lactation to a solid diet is critical and often results in smallintestinal atrophy and dysfunction in piglets (Wu et al 1996).…”