Seaweed extracts and galacto-oligosaccharides improve intestinal health in pigs following Salmonella Typhimurium challenge

Abstract

Pork and pork products are recognised as vehicles of Salmonella Typhimurium infection in humans. Seaweed-derived polysaccharides (SWE) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) have shown to exhibit antimicrobial, prebiotic and immunomodulatory activity. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of dietary GOS and SWE supplementation on reducing S. Typhimurium numbers and intestinal inflammation in vivo. In total, 30 pigs (n=10/treatment, BW 30.9 kg) were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments: (1) basal diet; (2) basal diet+2.5 g GOS/kg diet; (3) basal diet+SWE (containing 180 mg laminarin/kg diet+340 mg fucoidan/kg diet). Following an 11-day dietary adaptation period, pigs were orally challenged with 108 colony-forming units/ml S. Typhimurium (day 0). Pigs remained on their diets for a further 17 days and were then sacrificed for sample collection. The SWE supplementation did not affect S. Typhimurium numbers on days 2 and 4 post-challenge but reduced S. Typhimurium numbers in faecal samples collected day 7 post-challenge (-0.80 log gene copy numbers (GCN)/g faeces) and in caecal and colonic digesta (-0.62 and -0.98 log GCN/g digesta, respectively; P<0.05) compared with the control treatment. Lactobacillus numbers were increased in caecal and colonic digesta after GOS supplementation (+0.70 and +0.35 log GCN/g digesta, respectively; P<0.05). In colonic tissue, both GOS and SWE supplementation resulted in reduced messenger RNA expression levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-22, tumour necrosis factor-α and regenerating islet-derived protein 3-γ (P<0.05). It can be concluded that dietary supplementation of SWE reduced faecal and intestinal S. Typhimurium numbers compared with the basal diet, whereas dietary GOS supplementation increased Lactobacillus numbers in caecal and colonic digesta but did not affect S. Typhimurium numbers. Supplementation of GOS and SWE reduced the gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in colonic tissue of pigs after the experimental S. Typhimurium challenge.

Seaweeds in Pig Nutrition

“…In this case, the influence on ADG was limited but statistically significant, and ranged from +1.2 to +3.3%. Bouwhuis et al [58,59] evaluated the effects of brown seaweed supplementation on pigs' growth performance after being challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium. When the challenge occurred in post-weaning, no significant effect was observed; in pigs with a live weight of 30 kg, the seaweed supplement led to a significant increase in growth (+16%).…”

“…In swine, 24 studies have been published in the last 10 years on the effects of supplementation with brown seaweeds, or their extracts, on gut health: Ascophyllum nodosum [42,60,72], Ecklonia cava [63], Laminaria digitata [64,80,81], Laminaria hyperborea [82,83], Laminaria digitata and Laminaria hyperborea association [84], Laminaria spp. [58,59,65,67,[69][70][71][85][86][87][88][89][90]. Brown seaweeds titrated in alginic acid polysaccharides have also been studied [63].…”

“…Many studies have evaluated the anti-inflammatory activity of brown seaweeds, in particular Laminaria digitata, Laminaria hyperborea and Laminaria spp., usually titrated in laminarin and fucoidans [58,59,61,71,80,85,87,88,90,92]. In addition, non-specified brown seaweeds titrated in alginic acid have been evaluated by Wan et al [61,92].…”

“…In a 28-day trial, Bouwhuis et al [59] observed the effects of a diet supplemented with laminarin 0.18 g/kg and fucoidans 0.34 g/kg, in 30 kg LW female pigs. After an 11-day adaptation period, pigs were orally challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium.…”

Dietary Seaweed-derived Polysaccharides Improve Growth Performance of Weaned Pigs Through Maintaining Intestinal Barrier Function and Modulating Gut Microbial Populations&nbsp;

“…Nowadays, extensive attention has been paid to the application of natural polysaccharide compounds as prebiotics in maintaining the health of mammals due to their potential nutritional and therapeutic bene ts, such as antitumor, antivirus and hypoglycemic activity [6][7][8]. Speci cally, seaweed-derived polysaccharides (SDP), one of the most abundant polysaccharides in marine organisms, are evidenced to exhibit wide variety of biological and pharmacological activities, including antioxidation [9], immunomodulation [10], anticoagulant activity [11] and gastrointestinal protection [12]. Collectively, these properties seem to impel SDP to serve as an effective dietary supplement for improving the growth performance and health of neonatal mammals.…”