Probiotics and antibiotics as additives for sows and piglets during nursery phase

It is a general consensus that daily weight gain in the first week after weaning has an enormous impact on subsequent performance. Specific dietary additives are incorporated at this stage in order to improve performance and benefit the health of animals. In addition to antibiotics, other additives as probiotics have also been used. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the use of probiotics in diets for sows and piglets on performance and morphophysiologic parameters and the incidence of diarrhea in piglets during 28 days after weaning. A total of 120 pigs weaned at 21 days of age from 24 litters whose sows (primiparous) received probiotics or antibiotics from the 94th day of gestation until weaning were used. It was used a complete randomized design in a 2 × 3 factorial (probiotics or antibiotics for sows and three diets for piglets - antibiotics, probiotics or probiotic-antibiotic combination) with four replicates of five animals to evaluate the performance and incidence of diarrhea. At 28 days of experiment, two animals from each plot were sacrificed for histological parameter measurement of the pH of the stomach, jejunum and cecum.

The association antibiotics + probiotics in the diet of pigs resulted in greater (P<0,05) weight gain and feed intake in animals born from sows which received probiotics during the gestation and lactation phases. When females received antibiotics, the piglets receiving only probiotics showed higher (P<0,05) consumption, but there were no differences (P>0,05) for feed conversion. The use of antibiotics + probiotics in diets for piglets reduced (P<0,05) the pH of the cecum and, when associated with the use of probiotics for sows, villous:crypt ratio in the jejunum increased (P<0,05). The use of growth promoters did not affect (P>0,05) stomach pH neither the incidence of diarrhea.

Supply of probiotics in the diet of sows during the gestation and lactation phases associated to the use in the diet of piglets after weaning is effective in maintaining animal performance, histophysiological conditions in the gastrointestinal tract and control of diarrhea during the nursery phase.