Effects of dietary Clostridium butyricum supplementation on growth performance, intestinal development, and immune response of weaned piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharide

Abstract

BackgroundWeanling pigs, with immature immune system and physiological function, usually experience post-weaning diarrhea. This study determined the effects of dietary Clostridium butyricum supplementation on growth performance, diarrhea, and immunity of weaned pigs challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).MethodsIn Experiment (Exp.) 1, 144 weaned piglets were weaned at 21 d and randomly assigned to six groups, with six replicates per group and four pigs per replicate, receiving a control diet (CON) or diet supplemented with antibiotics (AB) or C. butyricum (CB) (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.4%, or 0.8%), respectively. All diets in Exp. 1 were a highly digestible basal diet, with 3,000 mg/kg zinc oxide supplied in the first 2 wk only. In Exp. 2, 180 piglets were weaned at 21 d and randomly assigned to five groups, with six replicates per group and six pigs per replicate, receiving CON, AB, or CB (0.2%, 0.4%, or 0.6%) diets. The digestibility of diets was lower than those in Exp. 1, and did not include zinc oxide. At 36 d of Exp. 2, 12 piglets were selected from each of the CON and 0.4% CB groups, six piglets were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (50 μg/kg body weight) and the other six piglets with normal saline; animals were killed at 4 h after injection to collect blood, intestine, and digesta samples for biochemical analysis.ResultsIn Exp. 1, CB and AB diets had no effect on growth performance of piglets. In Exp. 2, 0.4% CB decreased feed-gain ratio (P < 0.1), diarrhea score (P < 0.05), and increased duodenal, jejunal, and ileal villus height and jejunal villus height/crypt depth (P < 0.05). The 0.4% CB decreased the plasma tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α (P < 0.05) but increased ileal mucosa IL-10 and TLR2 mRNA expression (P < 0.05). Furthermore, 0.4% CB altered the microbial profile, with Bacillus and Ruminococcaceae UGG-003 at genus level and Lactobacillus casei and Parasutterella secunda at species level were higher than CON in colonic content (P < 0.05).ConclusionsDietary C. butyricum supplementation had positive effects on growth of weaned piglets with less digestible diets. There was a tendency to reduce the feed-gain ratio, which could reduce feed costs in pig production. Moreover, C. butyricum decreased post-weaning diarrhea by improving the intestinal morphology, intestinal microflora profile, and immune function.

Effects of nucleotides administration on growth performance and immune response of post-weaning piglets

“…Ileum is highly susceptible to gut pathological events which may concern weaning piglets, and therefore its possible structural and functional changes linked to nutraceutical administration are of a predictive value in the view of judging intestinal defensive responsiveness (Domeneghini et al 2004). Some published papers targeted the ileum to evaluate the effect of feed additives with presumed beneficial effect on performance and inflammatoryand immune-related parameters (Chen et al 2018;Li et al 2018;Cao et al 2019) In addition, in our study we were expecting the major effects in gene expression occurring in this tract of the intestine according to the results reported by Schokker et al (2015), who outlined as in 55-day-old piglets only the ileum displayed differences in immune-related processes when compared to the jejunum. The authors attributed this result to the fact that, in differentiated and matured ileum, immunological structures like Peyer's patches are much more abundant as compared to jejunum.…”

Early-Life Intervention Using Fecal Microbiota Combined with Probiotics Promotes Gut Microbiota Maturation, Regulates Immune System Development, and Alleviates Weaning Stress in Piglets

“…The immune system of newborn animals is generally considered to be immature, which is closely related to a series of early diseases [1][2][3][4]. For instance, the immaturity of the intestinal immune system is regarded as one of the most important reasons for early-life diarrhea and early-weaning stress in mammals [5], and it has been confirmed that the development and maturation of the mammal intestinal immune system occur in infancy, even in the fetal period [6][7][8]. Hence, promoting the maturation of the intestinal immune system in the early-life period is of great significance for the improvement of growth, development, and disease resistance of neonatal mammals.…”

Montmorillonite improved the intestinal mucosal barrier functions of laying hens in late production

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