Effect of feeding treated peat as a supplement to newborn piglets on the growth, health status and occurrence of conditionally pathogenic mycobacteria

Abstract

The first purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of ad libitum feeding of peat as a supplement to piglets from the age of five days up 23 days of age on their growth performance and health status. The second purpose was to assess the risk of the occurrence of conditionally pathogenic mycobacteria (CPM) in peat treated with ionizing radiation (Group PI) or per acetic acid (Group PP) and fed as a supplement to piglets. In respective experimental periods (at the age of 4, 23, 41 and 67 days), no significant differences in the average body weight between control group (C) and experimental Groups PI and PP were detected. Levels of selected biochemical (total protein, albumin, glucose, cholesterol, Ca, P, Fe and I) and haematological (erythrocytes, leukocytes and immunoglobulin – Ig) parameters of the health status of the piglets from all three Groups C, PI and PP were comparable at the age of 41 and 67 days. Mycobacteria were detected by culture in one diet sample (Mycobacterium intracellulare), in all 10 peat samples (7 M. a. hominissuis isolates, 2 M. intracellulare isolates and 1 M. xenopi isolate) and in 4 samples of biofilm from the drinking water pipeline system in the stables (M. xenopi, M. a. hominissuis, M. gordonae and Mycobacterium sp., one isolate in each). In 15 slaughtered pigs (at 67 days of age), no gross lesions that would give evidence of tuberculosis were found either in lymph nodes or parenchymatous organs. In Group C, mycobacteria were detected in tissues from two piglets (Mycobacterium sp. and M. a. hominissuis), Group PI in four piglets (M. a. hominissuis) and in Group PP in all five piglets (Mycobacterium sp., M. a. hominissuis, M. terrae and M. intracellulare). High positivity for CPM in both types of treated peat caused disseminated infection of the digestive tract of piglets from Groups PI and PP. Based on these results, feeding peat treated with ionisation or per acetic acid may be viewed as risky.