Soluble corn fiber, resistant corn starch, and protected butyrate effects on performance, gastrointestinal volatile fatty acids, and apparent total-tract digestibility of calcium and phosphorus in nursery pigs

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine how feeding a calcium (Ca) deficient diet would affect gastrointestinal pH and volatile fatty acids (VFA), Ca digestibility, bone mineral density (BMD), and performance in nursery pigs; and if supplementation of nondigestible oligosaccharides would affect these same parameters. Two hundred and forty weaned pigs (BW = 7.1 kg) were placed into 80 pens with 3 pigs/pen. The 8 dietary treatments consisted of: 1) positive control (PC, 0.83% total Ca), 2) negative control (NC, 0.50% total Ca), 3 and 4) NC + 5% or 7.5% soluble corn fiber (SCF), 5 and 6) NC + 5% or 7.5% resistant corn starch (rCS), 7 and 8) NC + 0.25% or 0.50% fat-protected butyrate (pBRT). Pigs were ad libitum fed the dietary treatments for 21 d to determine average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain:feed ratio (GF) with a fecal sample collected from each pen to determine Ca digestibility using acid insoluble ash as the dietary marker, with 1 pig/pen euthanized on d 21 for collection of ileal and colon contents and the left humerus. Pigs fed the NC diet had a lower colonic pH compared to pigs fed the PC (P = 0.06) but no effect on total VFA was observed (P > 0.10). Pigs fed diets containing SCF and rCS had lower colonic pH and total VFA compared to pigs fed the NC diet (P ≤ 0.05). Pigs fed diets containing pBRT had greater colonic total VFA compared to pigs fed the NC diet (P ≤ 0.07), but no difference in colonic pH was observed (P > 0.10). Pigs fed the NC diet had a greater Ca digestibility compared to pigs fed the PC (P ≤ 0.01), with no treatment to the NC having any effect on Ca digestibility compared to pigs fed the NC (P > 0.10). There was no effect of dietary Ca level on BMD and no overall addition of feeding SCF, rCS, or pBRT on BMD compared to pigs fed the NC (P > 0.10). There was no impact on pig ADG, ADFI, or GF by reducing dietary Ca by 40% (i.e., pigs fed the NC) compared to pigs fed the PC (P > 0.10). Relative to pigs fed the NC, there was no overall effect of SCF, rCS, or pBRT on ADG, ADFI, or GF (P > 0.10). In conclusion, feeding young pigs a Ca-deficient diet reduced colonic pH, increased digestibility of Ca, but had no impact on bone mineralization or overall pig performance. Supplementation of nondigestible oligosaccharides pr protected butyrate had either no effect or an inconsistent effect on colonic pH, Ca or PHOS digestibility, bone mineralization, or overall pig performance.

Dietary inclusion of High Amylose Cornstarch Increased Cecal digesta Lactobacillus and Terrisporobacter and Decreased Streptococcus Genera of Weanling Pigs

“…The present study evaluated the impact of the dietary treatments on VFA concentration in cecal digesta, which showed a consistent increase in acetate, propionate, and butyrate concentration in pigs fed the 40% HA-starch diet. Previous studies have reported similar effects of HA-starch increasing the VFA concentration in the intestinal digesta, especially butyrate concentrations [29][30][31] . Increased VFA production promotes intestinal development and health, especially for butyrate, improving intestinal epithelial cell function and as an energy source for the cells 16,32 .…”