Millet-based supplement restored microbiota diversity of acute undernourished pigs

Abstract

The strong connection between undernutrition and gut microbiota (GM) has enabled microbiota-targeting to become an evolving strategy, which witnessed urgent need for fortified formula of supplementary food in undernutrition therapy. Using undernourished pigs as models, we investigated how corn- and millet-based nutritional supplement acted differently in modulating microbiota. Undernourished pigs at age of 9 weeks were fed with pure maize diet (Maize), corn-based (CSB+) and millet-based (MSB+) supplementary food for 3 weeks. Compared with Maize group, both CSB+ and MSB+ improved serum total protein and globulin level, but no physiological improvement was observed by short-term food intervention. MSB+ shown superior influence on GM immaturity which were more normally-grown like at both structural and functional level. Higher level of Bacteriodetes, Firmicutes and lower level of Preteobacteria were detected in MSB+ fed piglets in contrast with CSB+. Lachnospira.spp was significantly raised after nutritional intervention, indicating high correlation with the undernutrition-associated phenotype. Thus, especially from the GM aspect, millet could be one promising source to help undernourished children reconstruct balanced microbiota in short therapeutic term.

Use of millet grain in weaning pigs diet: effects on performance and health status

“…Compared with the C diet, the plasma protein concentrations T-Pro, Alb, UA, Cre, T-Bil and BUN, in M diet remained at a similar level (P>0.05) and within the normal range for this category of animals (Table 3). Contrary to our study, increased of some blood protein fractions was reported by Li et al (2019) on malnourished pigs fed on proso millet diet during 3 weeks. However, blood biochemistry analysis of T-Pro, Alb, and BUN is widely interpreted as an index of protein catabolism (Shobana et al, 2010) and reflected the efficiency of dietary amino acids supply (Abeni et al, 2018).…”

“…Little information about the capacity of different types of millet grain to support performance in young pigs is currently available (Adeola and Orban 1995;Lawrence et al, 1995;Bastos et al, 2006;Li et al, 2019;Lefter et al, 2020). Summarizing the above-mentioned studies concerning growth performance of piglets at 9 weeks of age fed up to 60% millet diets to that of pigs fed corn-based diets, similar or minimal differences (Li et al, 2019) were observed for ADG, ADFI, and F: G ratio, respectively.…”

“…Little information about the capacity of different types of millet grain to support performance in young pigs is currently available (Adeola and Orban 1995;Lawrence et al, 1995;Bastos et al, 2006;Li et al, 2019;Lefter et al, 2020). Summarizing the above-mentioned studies concerning growth performance of piglets at 9 weeks of age fed up to 60% millet diets to that of pigs fed corn-based diets, similar or minimal differences (Li et al, 2019) were observed for ADG, ADFI, and F: G ratio, respectively. Several studies have examined the effect of up to 75% different types of millet grain in maize/soybean-based diets fed to growing-finishing pigs with no differences (P>0.05) on ADFI, ADG or F: G ratio due to treatment (Moreira et al, 2007;Oliveira et al, 2007).…”

“…Millet feeds due to the presence of polyphenols (phenolic acids and glycated flavonoids) with antioxidants properties (Changmei and Dorothy, 2014;Singh and Chauhan, 2019) could have significant health benefits for piglets exposed stressors (Li et al, 2019;Lefter et al, 2020). The gluten deficiency of millet grain is directly related to the protein digestibility.…”

Performance and Blood Metabolites of Growing Pigs Fed Paniculum Miliaceum Diet

“…Furthermore, improved glucose and lipid metabolism (Whittaker et al, 2017) and reduced inflammation and energy homeostasis (Scherer, 2006). It has been observed that a millet diet can improve the nutritional status of malnourished pigs and maintain health (Li et al, 2019).…”