Abstract
The adverse effects of antibiotics have attracted widespread attention, thus reducing the use of antibiotics in animal feed has become a very important issue in improving of the health of livestock. The effects of Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) on growth performance and gut microbiota in weaned piglets were investigated in the present study. Piglets were randomly assigned to four treatments: a control group fed with a diet containing 75 mg/kg aureomycin (Diet 1 group) and three experimental groups fed with diets of 50 mg/kg aureomycin (Diet 2 group), 50 mg/kg aureomycin + 9 × 105 CFU/g E. faecium (Diet 3 group), or 50 mg/kg aureomycin + 1.2 × 106 CFU/g E. faecium (Diet 4 group). Their gut microbial communities were analyzed by sequencing the V3–V4 region of the 16SrRNA gene. The results showed that the final body weights and the average daily gain of the weaned piglets in the Diet 2 group were higher (P = 0.05) than those in the Diet 1 or Diet 3 group. Decreasing trends (P = 0.08) was observed in mortality rate in the Diet 3 and 4 group when compared with that in the Diet 1 group. Increases in the Sobs, Chao1, ACE, and Shannon indexes and a decrease in the Simpson index were observed at intervals from day 1 to 14 (P < 0.05). The Sobs, Chao1, and ACE indexes in the Diet 3 group were the lowest on day 14 (P < 0.05). The abundance of Bacteroidetes was increased and that of Proteobacteria was decreased from day 1 to 7, but both of them kept stable from day 7 to 14. Besides, the lowest abundance of Fusobacteria, Lentisphaerae, and Planctomycetes was observed on day 1 and the lowest abundance of Actinobacteria was observed on day 14 in the Diet 3 group (P < 0.05). Overall, these results suggest that the antibiotics and E. faecium interventions result in different changes in the gut microbiota, and a reduced antibiotics diet supplemented with 1.2 × 106 CFU/g E. faecium does not affect the growth performance in weaned piglets.
Highlights
Antibiotics have been widely used in the prevention of diarrhea and the improvement of the growth of livestock
The lowest abundance of Fusobacteria, Lentisphaerae, and Planctomycetes was observed on day 1 and the lowest abundance of Actinobacteria was observed on day 14 in the Diet 3 group (P < 0.05). These results suggest that the antibiotics and E. faecium interventions result in different changes in the gut microbiota, and a reduced antibiotics diet supplemented with 1.2 × 106 CFU/g E. faecium does not affect the growth performance in weaned piglets
Previous studies showed a beneficial effect of probiotic E. faecium on diarrhea, growth performance, and microbiota composition (Zeyner and Boldt 2006; Bednorz et al 2013; Wang et al 2016; Lan and Kim 2017), suggesting that antibiotics may be replaced by E. faecium
Summary
Antibiotics have been widely used in the prevention of diarrhea and the improvement of the growth of livestock. It’s of great significance to find alternatives to antibiotics in animal feed to promote the development of livestock industry. Probiotic feed additives have been proposed as alternatives to antibiotics due to their positive effects on hosts (Liu et al 2014; Abhisingha et al 2017; Yu et al 2017). Previous studies showed a beneficial effect of probiotic E. faecium on diarrhea, growth performance, and microbiota composition (Zeyner and Boldt 2006; Bednorz et al 2013; Wang et al 2016; Lan and Kim 2017), suggesting that antibiotics may be replaced by E. faecium. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms in the effect of E. faecium
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