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Due to the restriction of antibiotic use in swine production, potential alternative feed additives have gained prominence. One alternative tested in this study is nucleotides. These monomers are important to cell growth and division and are crucial to the rapid proliferation of such cells as the intestinal mucosa and immune cells. Accordingly, the nucleotide requirements of animals are high during periods of rapid growth and stress like post-weaning period. The study aimed to evaluate whether dietary nucleotide supplementation could be an alternative to in-feed antibiotics. For that purpose, ninety-six 21-day-old piglets were allocated into 1 of 3 treatments in a 14-day trial. Dietary treatments consisted of control: corn-soybean meal-based diet; nucleotides: control + 2 g/kg of a nutritional additive with purified nucleotides; and antibiotic: control + 0.8 g/kg of antibiotic growth promoter based on colistin and tylosin.
Performance variables and fecal score were not affected by supplementing nucleotide or antibiotic. Nucleotides treatment had a similar effect to antibiotics and was superior to control on enhancing duodenum villus height, jejunum crypt depth, and reduction of Paneth cellular area. The duodenum and ileum of animals supplemented with nucleotides or antibiotics had a higher number of proliferating cells than did those of control animals, whereas the jejunum of animals that received antibiotic diets presented more proliferating cells than either the nucleotides or control animals. Nucleotides and antibiotic treatments decreased the B lymphocyte counts in the duodenum and ileum but increased in the jejunum, when compared to the control treatment. In the ileum, antibiotic supplementation reduced total bacteria quantification compared to nucleotide supplementation or the control, whereas nucleotides supplementation increased enterobacteria proliferation compared to the antibiotic or control diets.
To conclude, these results suggest that the nucleotides source used for weaned piglets improved gut health by modulating the local immune response and modulating intestinal mucosa development, and, therefore, nucleotides may be an alternative to antibiotics as growth promoters.
Valini GAC, Duarte MS, Calderano AA, Teixeira LM, Rodrigues GA, Fernandes KM, Veroneze R, Serão NVL, Mantovani HC, Rocha GC. Dietary nucleotide supplementation as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics in weaned piglets. Animal. 2021;15(1): 100021.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2020.100021