Abstract
Simple SummaryImproving disease resistance in pig is a major challenge faced by the pig industry. Intestinal health plays a critical role in modulating disease resistance in pigs. Dietary fiber has been widely recognized to prevent intestinal disorders in pigs. We found that feeding 5.74% crude fiber (obtained from beet pulp) to growing pigs could modulate gut microbiota composition and increase the short-chain fatty-acid content in the hindgut, suggesting that dietary supplementation with a high dose of fiber derived from beet pulp can help improve the gut health of growing pigs.The present study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary fiber on the gut health of growing pigs. In total, 30 growing pigs with an initial average body weight of 45.8 ± 2.78 kg were divided into three groups with 10 replicates per treatment, and one pig per replicate. The treatments included a corn–soybean meal-based diet (control group, 1.5% crude fiber (CF)), corn–soybean meal + beet pulp-based diet (beet pulp group, 5.74% CF) and corn–soybean meal-based diet (feed intake-pairing group (pairing group); the feed intake was equal to the beet pulp group, 1.5% CF). The whole trial lasted 28 days. The beet pulp group had a longer length of the large intestine, higher weight of the small intestine and whole intestine, greater density of the large intestine and whole intestine, and higher villus height in the jejunum and ileum than the control group (p < 0.05). The messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF), glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2), and glucagon-like peptide 2 receptor (GLP-2R) in the duodenum, EGF and GLP-2 in the jejunum, EGF in the ileum, and GLP-2 in the colon were higher in the beet pulp group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Moreover, the apparent total tract digestibility of crude ash, energy, dry matter (DM), and crude protein (CP) was lower in the beet pulp group than in the control group (p < 0.05), while the apparent total tract digestibility of CF, the activity of jejunal lactase, and the mRNA abundance of duodenal GLP-2 were higher in the beet pulp group than in the control and pairing groups (p < 0.05). In addition, the beet pulp group had more goblet cells in the colon, more Bifidobacterium spp. in the cecal digesta, higher concentrations of acetic acid and butyric acid in the cecal digesta, and higher mRNA abundance of duodenal regeneration protein Ⅲγ (REG-Ⅲγ), jejunal mucin 2 (MUC-2), and ileal G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR-43) than the control group (p < 0.05). However, these parameters did not differ between the control and pairing groups (p > 0.05). These findings indicate feeding a high-fiber diet (5.74% CF, obtained from beet pulp) to pigs could modulate the gut microbiota composition, increase the short-chain fatty-acid (SCFA) content in the hindgut, and improve gut health, which is independent of the feed intake.
Highlights
As one of the dietary nutrients affecting intestinal function, dietary fiber has been widely recognized to prevent intestinal disorders, such as post-weaning diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease in pigs [1,2,3]
From days 0 to 28, final weight (p = 0.001), average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p < 0.001), and average daily gain (ADG) (p < 0.001) decreased in the beet pulp and paring groups compared to the control group
Corn–soybean meal-based diet
Summary
As one of the dietary nutrients affecting intestinal function, dietary fiber has been widely recognized to prevent intestinal disorders, such as post-weaning diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease in pigs [1,2,3]. A study using ovine mammary epithelial cells as an in vitro model revealed that propionic acid could inhibit the internalization of Staphylococcus aureus into the epithelial cells [8], while studies on CACO-2, IPEC-J2, and LS174T human colorectal cells demonstrated that butyrate could maintain intestine barrier function by increasing the expression of mucin and tight-junction protein genes and enhancing transepithelial electrical resistance [9,10,11] These results suggest that bacteria and SCFA could affect the intestinal barrier integrity by regulating the expression levels of tight-junction proteins and mucin genes. Our findings will raise understanding about how dietary beet pulp inclusion beneficially influences the intestinal health in growing pigs
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