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Postweaning piglets suffer several stress factors including nutritional, environmental and social status. Gut imbalance frequently occurred in postweaning piglets due the increased population of Enterobacteriaceae (ENT) and decreased population of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), resulting in diarrhoea. Recently, metabolites of LAB has been shown to have probiotic effects, which contain antibacterial substances such as lactic, acetic, propionic, butyric acids, ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and bacteriocins. It has been shown that these substances were able to reduce the pH and the opportunistic pathogens. However, the information of probiotic metabolites effects on piglet growth performance, gut microflora and faecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) is still limited. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of liquid metabolite combinations produced by L. plantarum on growth performance, faeces characteristics, intestinal villi height and diarrhoea incidence in postweaning piglets.
A total of 120 piglets (26 days old) were randomly assigned evenly into five treatment groups treated with same basal diet: (1) –ve control (free antibiotic); (2)+ve control (0.03% of chlortetracycline); (3) Com 1 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG11 and RI11 strains); (4) Com 2 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG14 and RS5 strains); (5) Com 3 (0.3% metabolite of RG11, RG14 and RI11 strains).
After 5 weeks, the average daily feed intake was not significantly different (P>0.05) among the treatments and feed conversion ratio was the highest (P<0.05) in the −ve control group. In addition, diarrhea incidence was reduced when piglets were fed with metabolite combinations. Faecal LAB counts were significantly higher (P<0.05) in metabolite treatment groups than in the groups without metabolites. However, the treatment of Com 2 metabolite resulted lower (P<0.05) faecal pH and ENT than the −ve control group. In contrast, total faecal SCFA of Com 2 were significantly higher (P<0.05) than the −ve control group. The villus height of duodenum was higher (P<0.05) in the +ve control and Com 2 groups as compared to –ve control group.
The results obtained in this study showed that feeding metabolite combinations could improve growth performance, and increase the population of gut LAB and faecal SCFA of postweaning piglets.
A total of 120 piglets (26 days old) were randomly assigned evenly into five treatment groups treated with same basal diet: (1) –ve control (free antibiotic); (2)+ve control (0.03% of chlortetracycline); (3) Com 1 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG11 and RI11 strains); (4) Com 2 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG14 and RS5 strains); (5) Com 3 (0.3% metabolite of RG11, RG14 and RI11 strains).
After 5 weeks, the average daily feed intake was not significantly different (P>0.05) among the treatments and feed conversion ratio was the highest (P<0.05) in the −ve control group. In addition, diarrhea incidence was reduced when piglets were fed with metabolite combinations. Faecal LAB counts were significantly higher (P<0.05) in metabolite treatment groups than in the groups without metabolites. However, the treatment of Com 2 metabolite resulted lower (P<0.05) faecal pH and ENT than the −ve control group. In contrast, total faecal SCFA of Com 2 were significantly higher (P<0.05) than the −ve control group. The villus height of duodenum was higher (P<0.05) in the +ve control and Com 2 groups as compared to –ve control group.
The results obtained in this study showed that feeding metabolite combinations could improve growth performance, and increase the population of gut LAB and faecal SCFA of postweaning piglets.
TV Thu, TC Loh, HL Foo, H Yaakub and MH Bejo, 2011. Tropical Animal Health and Production, 43:69–75.
