Approaches in gut health and additives for young pigs

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of feed and water additives on nursery pig growth performance and intestinal health. The objective of experiment 1 study was to investigate the effects of organic acids (OA) in the drinking water. One hundred-twelve weaned pigs (5.17 kg, approximately 20 d old) were assigned in a completely randomized block design with four treatments and seven replicates: negative control (NC, basal diet), positive control (PC, NC + 150/120/80/80 mg/kg of colistin in each of four phases, respectively), and two doses/liter of water of OA, OA1 (1.0 mL OA/L), and OA2 (2.0 mL OA/L). The inclusion of OA in the water increased daily water usage, volatile fatty acids concentration in cecum content, and the overall antioxidant capacity of jejunum but did not affect growth performance and diarrhea incidence. The objective of experiment 2 was to investigate the effect of a dacitic tuff breccia (DTB) in the diet of nursery pigs (7.73±0.21 kg; 28±0.5 d). Dietary treatments were: 1) Control diet (CON), 2) CON + 0.25% DTB (DTB1), and 3) CON + 0.50% DTB (DTB2). Blood, jejunal, and ileal samples were collected for a typical metabolic panel and basic histologic and morphologic measurements. Pigs fed DTB2 tended to have greater average daily gain (P=0.07) than CON and DTB1 fed pigs, and greater average daily feed intake (P=0.008). Gain:Feed did not differ among treatments (P=0.75). Crypt depth in the jejunum was greater (P=0.04) for DTB1 compared to CON fed pigs but did not differ from DTB2 fed pigs. Histomorphometry, number of goblet cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes were not different among treatments (P>0.17). The proportion of monocytes was lower in DTB1 compared to CON and DTB2 fed pigs (P=0.024). Blood urea nitrogen concentration tended to be linearly decreased with increasing DTB concentrations (P=0.06). The objective of experiment 3 was to evaluate nutrient digestibility of diets containing 0.0% or 0.5% DTB. Dietary treatments were: 1) Control (CON) and 2) CON+0.50% DTB (DTB). Pigs (7.73±0.21 kg; 26±0.2 d) were individually housed and fed for 20 d (n=24). Nutrient digestibility was evaluated using individual metabolism pens for 3 d total collection of feces and urine during last week of the study. Overall nutrient digestibility was not affected by inclusion of DTB in the diet (P>0.05), accept better nitrogen retention for DTB fed pigs (P<0.05). In conclusion, DTB in nursery diets can maximize growth performance of nursery pigs and OA can be used in alternative to colistin not altering growth but improving antioxidant capacity in the jejunum.