Abstract
The first weeks after weaning are a critical stage for piglets characterized by high incidence of diarrhoea and low weight gain. These problems were counteracted with the use of antibiotic growth promoters that may as a side-effect induce the selection of antibiotic-resistant genes in animal and human pathogens. For this reason, the European Union decided to completely ban the antibiotics used as growth promoters as of January 2006. As a consequence of this decision, alternative strategies to modulate the piglet gastrointestinal environment have been the object of many studies. The use of non-pharmaceutical dietary supplements, such as organic acids, prebiotics, probiotics, and essential oils has been shown to improve piglet post-weaning health and growth performances but results are sometimes controversial. Moreover, the role of molecules that can influence gastrointestinal and immune development in the newly weaned piglet has been investigated. The proper choice and use of a non-pharmacological dietary supplement might improve piglet productivity but it has to be considered that dietary supplements usually increase the feed price, which means that the gains in productivity should exceed the increased costs.
Highlights
Weaning piglets at 3-4 weeks of age exposes the animals to nutritional, environmental, and social stresses that usually result in a post-weaning phase characterized by low weight gain, low feed intake and diarrhoea
There is a wide literature regarding the effect of feeding organic acids to piglets on their growth performance and health
Several dietary supplements are available to be fed to piglets in the postweaning phase in order to improve animal intestinal health and growth performance
Summary
Weaning piglets at 3-4 weeks of age exposes the animals to nutritional, environmental, and social stresses that usually result in a post-weaning phase characterized by low weight gain, low feed intake and diarrhoea There is a wide literature regarding the effect of feeding organic acids to piglets on their growth performance and health. Partanen and Mroz (1999) have concluded that organic acids seem to improve growth performance and feed efficiency of weaned piglets but the responses vary greatly, depending on type and dose of acid used, composition of basal diet, age of animals, and environmental conditions and hygiene (Ravindran and Kornegay, 1993).
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