Abstract
This study was developed to evaluate the effects of adding L-glutamine and L-glutamate in diets with no lactose or with 4.0 or 8.0% lactose inclusion for piglets weaned at 21 days old. One hundred and eight piglets with initial weight of 6.12±0.70 kg were allotted in a complete randomized block design, in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement, with six treatments, six replicates, and three piglets per experimental unit. The experimental diets were supplied from 21 to 35 days. From 36 to 49 days, animals received the same diet with no lactose inclusion, but the animals in the treatments with L-glutamine + L-glutamate in the previous phase continued to receive diets containing these ingredients. There was no interaction between the level of lactose and the inclusion of L-glutamine + L-glutamate on the parameters evaluated. The levels of lactose did not affect the performance of piglets in either of the two periods. Adding L-glutamine and L-glutamate in the diet positively influenced the weight gain of pigs from 21 to 49 days of age and increased the villous height in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. Inclusion of L-glutamine + L-glutamate in diets for piglets weaned at 21 days of age improves the performance and the intestinal mucosa morphology, regardless of lactose addition.
Highlights
The association of all the stressors related to early weaning of piglets results in reduction in daily feed intake, especially during the first week
The intestinal microbiota genetic profile was assessed by the electrophoresis technique in gel with gradient denaturant – denaturing gradient gel (DGGE) (Muyzer et al, 1993).The data obtained by using the program Bionumerics, version 5.10, were used to calculate the richness, measured in operational taxonomic units (OUT), the Shannon-Weaver diversity (H’) and equitably (E’) indexes, and with similarity corresponding to the diets containing different lactose levels
In absolute values, the inclusion of L-glutamine + L-glutamate resulted in an increase of 4.6, 11.1, and 7.9% in the body weight at 35 days, average daily gain (ADG), and average daily feed intake (ADFI) of piglets, respectively, followed by a reduction of 3.2% in feed conversion (FC), in absolute values
Summary
The association of all the stressors related to early weaning of piglets results in reduction in daily feed intake, especially during the first week. The amino acid glutamine constitutes an ingredient with the potential to improve the performance of piglets through its action in the maintenance of the small intestine mucosal structure (Yi et al, 2005), in addition to its role as precursor of proteins, nucleotides and polyamines (Sources et al, 2007). The action of this amino acid, termed conditionally essential, is related to the multiplication of cells of intense development, such as enterocytes of the intestinal mucosa and immune cells (Abreu & Donzele, 2008; Wu et al, 1996). There is a need to evaluate the effect of adding L-glutamine and L-glutamate in diets containing different levels of lactose on the performance and intestinal mucosa structure of piglets weaned at 21 days
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