The effect of inulin and sugar beet fibre on Oesophagostomum dentatum infection in pigs

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the role of inulin and sugar beet fibres (SBF) on adult O. dentatum in growing pigs. Four experimental diets were formulated based on barley flour with added insoluble fibre from oat husk (Diet 1), a pure carbohydrate source inulin (Diet 2), soluble fibre from sugar beet fibre (SBF) with a high proportion of soluble fibre components (Diet 3) or inulin plus SBF (Diet 4). Thirty-two 10-week-old pigs were divided randomly into 4 groups each of 8 pigs. After 3 weeks adaptation on Diet 1 all pigs were infected with a single dose of 6000 L8 O. dentatum. At week 7 p.i. one group was switched to Diet 2, another group to Diet 3 and another group to Diet 4. The remaining 8 pigs continued on Diet 1 until the end of the experiment and served as controls. At week 13, all pigs were necropsied and their worm burdens determined. The worm recoveries from the pigs on the inulin supplemented diet (Diet 2) were reduced by 97% compared to the controls (Diet 1). Further, the inulin-fed pigs exhibited markedly reduced faecal egg counts. The pigs on inulin plus SBF diet (Diet 4) and on SBF diet (Diet 3) had 86% and 70% adult worm reductions compared with the controls, respectively. The results from this study indicate that highly degradable and rapidly fermentable carbohydrates such as dietary inulin have a profound deworming effect on O. dentatum infection.

Helminth parasites in pigs: New challenges in pig production and current research highlights

“…prebiotics) may have a substantial negative impact on both establishing and established O. dentatum infections (Petkevičius et al, 1997(Petkevičius et al, , 1999(Petkevičius et al, , 2001(Petkevičius et al, , 2003Mejer, 2006). Though the mechanism is not fully elucidated, it is believed to be linked to the changes in the physico-chemical properties of the intestinal content and bacterial fermentation end products (i.e.…”

“…So far fermentable carbohydrate sources such as inulin, a fructan purified from chicory roots, alone or combined with sugar beet fibres have been shown to be effectual (Petkevičius et al, 2003(Petkevičius et al, , 2007Thomsen et al, 2005). In addition, as an alternative to inulin, which is too costly for livestock, both crude, chopped and dried, milled chicory roots have also yielded promising results (Mejer, 2006;Jensen et al, 2010).…”

“…For the new animal-friendly housing and not least for alternative outdoor systems, both of which are highly favourable to helminth transmission, control is needed and it will be very risky to rely on anthelmintics alone, as anthelmintic resistance will inevitably develop -and for organic farms routine preventive treatment is not an option. Therefore, there is a strong need for elaborating and testing alternative control measures, such as using more resistant genotypes for breeding (Nejsum et al, 2009c), feeding the pigs with fermentable carbohydrates to reduce worm burdens (Petkevičius et al, 2001(Petkevičius et al, , 2003(Petkevičius et al, , 2007Thomsen et al, 2005;Mejer, 2006), and inactivate hard-shelled nematode eggs within the surrounding environment, e.g. by egg predacious microfungi (Gortari and Hours, 2008).…”

The effect of a diet with fructan-rich chicory roots on intestinal helminths and microbiota with special focus on Bifidobacteria and Campylobacter in piglets around weaning

“…Feeding piglets chicory root is a promising non-medical strategy due to the prebiotic effect of fructans (Grizard and Barthomeuf, 1999;Bosscher et al, 2006). For example, experimental inulin diets reduced the worm burdens of Oesophagostomum dentatum and Trichuris suis in pigs by 97% and 71%, respectively (Petkevičius et al, 2003 and, and a recent study has demonstrated a marked effect of crude chicory on Ascaris suum (Mejer, 2006). Furthermore, a fructan-rich diet was successful in preventing the development of swine dysentery , and inulinsupplemented diets reduced the incidence of post-weaning diarrhoea in conventional-weaned pigs (Halas et al, 2009).…”

Pathobiology ofHeterakis gallinarummono-infection and co-infection withHistomonas meleagridisin layer chickens

“…Inulin-fed rats showed an increased proportion of dendritic cells in the Peyer's patches and higher ex vivo secretion of IL-2, IL-10 and interferon (IFN)-g in spleen and mesenteric lymph node cell cultures (Ryz et al, 2009). Furthermore, NSP influenced the course of intestinal nematode infection in mammalian species (Petkevicius et al, 1997(Petkevicius et al, , 2001(Petkevicius et al, , 2003(Petkevicius et al, , 2007Pearce, 1999). There is no information available on the influence of NSP on gut immunity, nematode infection and electrophysiological parameters in chickens.…”