Effect of a dietary probiotic blend on performance, blood characteristics, meat quality and faecal microbial shedding in growing-finishing pigs

A. M. Crovace,V. Tufarelli,V. Laudadio,G. Rossi

doi:10.4314/sajas.v47i6.15

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of a dietary probiotic blend on growth performance, blood characteristics, meat quality, and faecal microbial population in growing-finishing pigs in a 12-week experiment. Pigs were assigned to two dietary treatments: a control basal-diet without probiotic blend (No-Pro) and a test-diet including the probiotic blend (Pro) according to pig bodyweight (BW) at the dose of 100 mg/kg of BW. Pigs fed the probiotics had higher final BW and increased average daily gain (ADG), as well as improved feed conversion ratio (FCR). Blood parameters of pigs were not affected by dietary probiotic complex. Meat crude protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) contents were increased in the group fed probiotics, whereas there were no significant differences in the other meat traits. Feeding of probiotics determined a decrease in faecal NH3-N (+15.5%) and butyric acid concentrations, whereas no effects were observed on faecal acetic acid and propionic acid. An increased faecal Lactobacillus concentration was found when pigs fed probiotic blend. Based on our findings, feeding probiotic blend enhanced growth performance and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs, and also decreased faecal NH3-N and butyric acid levels resulting in a viable approach to reduce animal excreta pollution.Keywords: Diet, growth, pig, probiotics

Highlights

Probiotics are defined as bio-preparations, including living metabolites or cells of stabilized autochthonous microorganisms, which optimize composition and colonization of gut microflora in animals and humans and have a stimulative effect on digestive processes (Fuller, 1989; Meng et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2012)
When average daily gain (ADG) was calculated for the entire observation period, the pigs in the SLAB51treated group performed significantly better than those of the control group (P
Based on these findings, dietary supplementation with probiotics proved to be a viable approach to decreasing animal excreta pollution, as stated by Chen et al (2005)

Summary

Introduction

Probiotics are defined as bio-preparations, including living metabolites or cells of stabilized autochthonous microorganisms, which optimize composition and colonization of gut microflora in animals and humans and have a stimulative effect on digestive processes (Fuller, 1989; Meng et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2012). Probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus and Bacillus subtilis have been successfully applied to livestock species (Abdelqader et al, 2013). These two strains benefit animals by suppressing pathogens directly or indirectly (Bhardwaj et al, 2008; Seidavi et al, 2017). The use of probiotics to improve meat quality has been questioned, and results in pigs have been inconsistent (Quadros et al, 2001; Česlovas et al, 2005; Meng et al, 2010). Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary probiotic mixture on performance and meat quality of pigs

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