Abstract
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) could shape the structure of intestinal microbiota in animals. This study was conducted to explore the changes that happen in the structure and function of microbiota caused by weaning stress, and whether early-life FMT could alleviate weaning stress through modifying intestinal microbiota in weaned piglets. Diarrheal (D) and healthy (H) weaned piglets were observed, and in the same farm, a total of nine litters newborn piglets were randomly allocated to three groups: sucking normally (S), weaned at 21 d (W), and early-life FMT + weaned at 21 d (FW). The results demonstrated that differences of fecal microbiota existed in group D and H. Early-life FMT significantly decreased diarrhea incidence of weaned piglets. Intestinal morphology and integrity were improved in the FW group. Both ZO-1 and occludin (tight junction proteins) of jejunum were greatly enhanced, while the zonulin expression was significantly down-regulated through early-life FMT. The expression of IL-6 and TNF-α (intestinal mucosal inflammatory cytokines) were down-regulated, while IL-10 (anti-inflammatory cytokines) was up-regulated by early-life FMT. In addition, early-life FMT increased the variety of the intestinal microbial population and the relative amounts of some beneficial bacteria such as Spirochaetes, Akkermansia, and Alistipes. Functional alteration of the intestinal microbiota revealed that lipid biosynthesis and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis were enriched in the FW group. These findings suggested that alteration of the microbiota network caused by weaning stress induced diarrhea, and early-life FMT alleviated weaning stress in piglets, which was characterized by decreased diarrhea incidence, improved intestinal morphology, reduced intestinal inflammation, and modified intestinal bacterial composition and function.
Highlights
Weaning acts as a pivotal part in a pig’s life
Alpha diversity indices were calculated for examining the variety of the fecal microbiota between diarrheal and healthy piglets
The quantity and height of microvilli increased in the FMT + Weaned group (FW) group of jejunum compared to the W group (Figure 6D). These results suggested that early-life Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) improved intestinal morphology and integrity in weaned piglets
Summary
Weaning has been widely used in pig production as it helps to shorten the pig slaughter cycle and improve the reproductive performance of sows (Campbell et al, 2013). Under the condition of the modern large-scale intensive pig production, weaning is usually carried out at 3–4 weeks of age. Weaning-induced stress will lead to loss of appetite, post-weaning diarrhea, growth retardation, intestinal inflammation, and un-balanced gut microbiota (Pié et al, 2004). There is plenty of evidence that gut microbes can help prevent diarrhea (Youmans et al, 2015; Arroyo et al, 2020). In-feed antibiotics are often used to prevent and relieve weaning stress-induced diarrhea. In China, in-feed antibiotics were banned from July, 2020. There is a pressing need for exploiting non-antibiotic alternative strategies to help alleviate the weaning stress
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