Abstract
Due to the increasing safety concerns about the risk of spreading antibiotic resistance in the environment, and the presence of chemical residues in animal products, using organic acids (OAs) to replace antibiotic in the diet of farm animals has increased considerably in recent years. It has been suggested that OAs could attribute to diverse elements such as antimicrobial activity, decreasing the pH of digesta particularly in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), slowing feed transit in the GIT to maximize feed digestion and nutrient absorption, inducing enzyme secretion and activity in the small intestine, and providing nutrients to intestinal tissue. It has been reported that OAs mixture might be more effective than individual OAs due to the synergistic effects of different pKa values and have a broad-spectrum activity. In conclusion, this review showed that an OA mixture, which can improve nutrient digestibility and growth performance, modulate intestinal bacterial populations and improve gut health, as well as decreasing gas emission, can be used as alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. However, the results of OA mixtures are not always consistent, and the response to dietary OAs could be affected by the type of OAs, dosage, feed formula, and the age of animals. In this review, we will give an overview of the current use of OAs mixture in swine feed.
Highlights
Intestinal microorganisms influence their hosts owing to their various physiological functions [1].When gut health is compromised, digestion and nutrient absorption are affected which, in turn, can have a detrimental effect on feed conversion leading to economic loss and a greater susceptibility to disease [2]
To maintain animal health and performance, many researchers have suggested that the use of organic acids (OAs), organic minerals, bacteriophages, eubiotics, phytobiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics as potential alternatives when antibiotic growth promoters are withdrawn from animal feed
The purpose of this review is to assess the response of pig to OAs mixture of the previous reports using as demonstrated in terms of growth rate, feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR)
Summary
Intestinal microorganisms influence their hosts owing to their various physiological functions [1]. To maintain animal health and performance, many researchers have suggested that the use of organic acids (OAs), organic minerals, bacteriophages, eubiotics, phytobiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics as potential alternatives when antibiotic growth promoters are withdrawn from animal feed. Among these alternatives, dietary OAs have been broadly applied worldwide because of their antimicrobial activity, which can induce a pH reduction in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) [5], play a role against pathogenic bacteria, and eventually enhance nutrient utilization, and growth performance of animals [6]. The mixture or combination of acids shows different pKa values and have a broad-spectrum of activity, thereby maintaining optimum pH through the intestinal tract [14]
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