Abstract
Although dietary fibers (DFs) have been shown to improve intestinal health in pigs, it is unclear whether this improvement varies according to the type/source of DF. In the current study, we investigated the impact of dietary supplement (15%) of pea-hull fiber (PF), oat bran (OB), and their mixture (MIX, PF, and OB each accounted for 7.5%) in the growth performance as well as intestinal barrier and immunity-related indexes in growing pigs. Twenty-four cross-bred pigs (32.42 ± 1.95 kg) were divided into four groups: CON (basal diet with no additional DF), PF, OB, and MIX. After 56 days of feeding, we found that the growth performance of PF pigs was decreased (p < 0.05) compared with pigs in other groups. Results of real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot showed that the improvement of immune-related indexes (e.g., interleukin 10 [IL-10]) in OB and MIX pigs mainly presented in the ileum, whereas the improvement of intestinal barrier–related indexes (e.g., MUC1 and MUC2) mainly presented in the colon. Whether in the ileum or colon, such improvement of immune function may be dependent on NOD rather than TLR-associated pathways. Amplicon sequencing results showed that PF and MIX pigs shared a similar bacterial community, such as lower abundance of ileal Clostridiaceae and colonic Streptoccocus than that of CON pigs (p < 0.05). Our results indicate that OB and MIX, rather than PF, benefit the intestinal health in growing pigs, and multiple-sourced DF may reduce the adverse effect of single-soured DF on the growth performance and gut microbiota in pigs.
Highlights
Dietary fiber (DF) was originally regarded as a component of the plant cell wall that is indigestible by human and animals (Hipsley, 1953; Trowell, 1976), and the high level of dietary fibers (DFs) in the diet of pig may play an antinutritional role, such as the inhibition in the absorption of macronutrients and micronutrients (Campbell and Taverner, 1986; Zhou et al, 2013)
For the investigated genes related to immune function, we found the expression of IRAK4 in the ileum of oat bran (OB) and MIX pigs, and the expression of TRAF6 in the ileum of OB pigs was decreased compared with control group (CON) pigs (p < 0.05, Figure 1C), whereas the expression of IL-10 in the ileum of OB and MIX pigs was increased compared with CON and pea-hull fiber (PF) pigs (p < 0.05, Figure 1C)
Results of gas chromatograph (GC) analysis showed that changes in the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) induced by DF supplement were concentrated in the ileum (Figure 3A) rather than the colon (Figure 3B)
Summary
Dietary fiber (DF) was originally regarded as a component of the plant cell wall that is indigestible by human and animals (Hipsley, 1953; Trowell, 1976), and the high level of DF in the diet of pig may play an antinutritional role, such as the inhibition in the absorption of macronutrients and micronutrients (Campbell and Taverner, 1986; Zhou et al, 2013). Fibers Influence Pig Gut Health that the supplementation of some DF, such as beet pulp (Yan et al, 2017) and wheat bran (Zhao et al, 2018), may not have negative impact on the growth of animals This might be associated with the structure of DF, which is regarded to be closely related to the intestinal development, peristalsis, homeostasis, and microbiota (Lange et al, 2010; Bach Knudsen et al, 2012). In a rat model, the stimulation of mucin secretion by dietary supplement of low-viscosity SDF may not be related to the number of goblet cells, but was reported to be associated with an enhanced expression of MUC expression (Ito et al, 2009).
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