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Weaning piglets commonly encounter low feed intake, body weight loss, and post-weaning diarrhoea. These problems are typically overcome by using antibiotics. However, the increasing dissemination of antimicrobial resistance promoted a tendency all over the world to decrease antibiotics use as growth promoters. Exogenous enzyme preparations can complement the insufficiency of endogenous enzymes and significantly improve the digestibility. The study was conducted to investigate the effects of replacing antibiotics using multi-enzyme preparations on growth performance, coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility, digestive enzyme activity, and antioxidant property in piglets. A total of 160 piglets ((21.35±0.22) kg) were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments: 1) basal diet with antibiotics (AC), 2) antibiotic diet supplemented with 0.5 g kg−1 multi-enzyme preparations (AC+0.5EP), 3) antibiotic diet supplemented with 1.5 g kg−1 multi-enzyme preparations (AC+1.5EP), 4) basal diet supplemented with a half dosage of antibiotics and 1.5 g kg−1 multi-enzyme preparations (AH+1.5EP), and 5) basal diet supplemented with 1.5 g kg−1 multi-enzyme preparations (BC+1.5EP). The multi-enzyme preparations contained 2000 U of acid protease, 150 U of fungal α-amylase, 3500 U of xylanase, 350 U of β-mannanase, 120 U of glucose oxidase, 120 U of acid cellulose, and 100 U of galactosidase activities per gram.
The results showed that AC+1.5EP significantly improved feed efficiency, apparent digestibility of ether extract (EE) and crude ash (CA), lipase activity in pancreas and duodenum content, maltase and lactase activity in jejunum and ileum mucosa, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) concentration in serum and liver and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in serum and liver compared with piglets receiving AC. Piglets receiving BC+1.5EP showed no significant difference in growth performance but had lower MDA concentration than piglets receiving AC. The apparent digestibility of EE and crude fiber (CF), duodenal lipase activity, jejunum mucosa maltase, and ileum mucosa lactase activity of piglets receiving AH+1.5EP or BC+1.5EP were significantly improved compared with piglets receiving AC.
The supplementation of both multi-enzyme preparations and antibiotics had an additive effect on the pig growth performance. These results indicated that multi-enzyme preparations may be used as substitutes for antibiotics for improving piglet production performance and health status.
Han, X. Y., Yan, F. Y., Nie, X. Z., Wei, X. I. A., Sha, C. H. E. N., Zhang, X. X., and Qian, L. C. (2017). Effect of replacing antibiotics using multi-enzyme preparations on production performance and antioxidant activity in piglets. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 16(3), 640-647. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-3119(16)61425-9
