Abstract
Simple SummaryThe weaning process can be detrimental to piglets and often leads to low feed intake, low weight gain, diarrhea, and eventually increased mortality. Resin acid-enriched composition (RAC) is an innovative natural feed ingredient that contains 90% fatty acids, mostly linoleic and oleic, pinolenic acids, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). It also contains 9% active component resin acid (RA), mostly abietic and dehydroabietic, and pimaric acids. It possesses antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties and has been used in feed to improve performance in pigs. We hypothesized that RAC supplementation to sow and piglet diets might modulate intestinal microbiota, and improve post-weaning growth and reduce post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) and gut inflammation. Sow diets were supplemented with RAC from the last six weeks of gestation until weaning, and piglets were fed RAC trough creep feed and post weaning feed until seven weeks of age. Results indicated that supplementing sow and piglet diets with RAC during late gestation, lactation and at post weaning modulates gut microbiota, reduces inflammatory biomarkers, improves growth performance of post-weaning piglets, and prevents PWD in weaned piglets. Considering these results, RAC supplementation represents a potential strategy to improve piglet growth performance, and is a natural alternative to antibiotics for preventing PWD.The weaning process represents a delicate phase for piglets, and is often characterized by lower feed intake, lower weight gain, diarrhea, and ultimately increased mortality. We aimed to determine the effects of RAC supplementation in diets on improving piglet growth and vitality, reducing post-weaning diarrhea, and enhancing gut health. In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment, we selected forty sows and their piglets. Piglets were followed until seven weeks of age. There were no significant differences found between RAC treated and control piglets until weaning (p = 0.26). However, three weeks after weaning, RAC treated piglets had higher body weight and average daily growth (ADG) than the control piglets (p = 0.003). In addition, the piglets that received RAC after weaning, irrespective of mother or prior creep feed treatment, had lower post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) and fecal myeloperoxidase (MPO) level than control piglets. Gut microbiota analysis in post-weaning piglets revealed that RAC supplementation significantly increased Lachnospiraceae_unclassified, Blautia, Butyricicoccus, Gemmiger and Holdemanella, and decreased Bacteroidales_unclassified. Overall, RAC supplementation to piglets modulated post-weaning gut microbiota, improved growth performance after weaning, reduced post-weaning diarrhea and reduced fecal myeloperoxidase levels. We therefore consider RAC to be a potential natural feed supplement to prevent enteric infections and improve growth performance in weaning piglets.
Highlights
Weaning is a critical stage in piglets’ lives since they are predisposed to various gastrointestinal illnesses and impaired performance [1]
There was no significant difference in live birth piglets among groups, but there was a tendency for higher total born piglets from RAC fed sows (Control = 13.5, RAC = 15.0; p = 0.094)
In a post-weaning piglet diarrhea model, we found that the higher the incidence of piglet diarrhea at weaning, the higher the risk for piglets to develop post-weaning diarrhea
Summary
Weaning is a critical stage in piglets’ lives since they are predisposed to various gastrointestinal illnesses and impaired performance [1]. Piglets are at risk of low feed intake, minimal weight gain, diarrhea, and increased mortality [2,3]. Resin acidenriched composition (RAC) is an innovative feed additive derived from coniferous trees and produced by thermal distillation without added chemicals from a side stream of wood pulp manufacture [15,16]. It contains 90% fatty acids (mostly linoleic, oleic, pinolenic acids, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and 9% active component resin acid (RA) (mostly abietic, dehydroabietic, and pimaric acids) [15]
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