Probiotics and antibiotics as additives for sows and piglets during nursery phase

Marcus Leonardo Figueiredo Silva,Níkolas de Oliveira Amaral,Vinícius de Souza Cantarelli,Márcio Gilberto Zangerônimo,Elias Tadeu Fialho,José Augusto de Freitas Lima

doi:10.1590/s1516-35982010001100019

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the use of probiotics in diets for sows and piglets on performance and morphophysiologic parameters and the incidence of diarrhea in piglets during 28 days after weaning. A total of 120 pigs weaned at 21 days of age from 24 litters whose sows (primiparous) received probiotics or antibiotics from the 94th day of gestation until weaning. It was used a complete randomized design in a 2 × 3 factorial (probiotics or antibiotics for sows and three diets for piglets - antibiotics, probiotics or probiotic-antibiotic combination) with four replicates of five animals to evaluate the performance and incidence of diarrhea. At 28 days of experiment, two animals from each plot were sacrificed for histological parameter measurement of the pH of the stomach, jejunum and cecum. The association antibiotics+ probiotics in the diet of pigs resulted in greater weight gain and feed intake in animals born from of sows which received probiotics during the gestation and lactation phases. When females received antibiotics, the piglets receiving only probiotics showed higher consumption, but there were no differences for feed conversion. The use of antibiotics + probiotics in diets for piglets reduced the pH of the cecum and, when associated with the use of probiotics for sows, villous:crypt ratio in the jejunum increased. The use of growth promoters did not affect stomach pH neither the incidence of diarrhea. Supply of probiotics in the diet of sows during the gestation and lactation phases associated to the use in the diet of piglets after weaning is effective in maintaining animal performance, to histophysiological conditions in the gastrointestinal tract and control of diarrhea during the nursery phase.

Highlights

It is a general consensus that daily weight gain in the first week after weaning has an enormous impact on subsequent performance
The litters of each group were distributed according to the diets of the sows in three groups: one group received antibiotics added to the diet, the other orally received probiotics at 1, 3, 12 and 21 days of age and added to the diet at the beginning of the treatment (1,000 ppm), and the third group received probiotics, orally, on the same days and added to the diet (1,000 ppm) associated to the antibiotics
The different additives used in diets for piglets did not influence (P>0.05) weight gain of animals during the nursery phase

Summary

Introduction

It is a general consensus that daily weight gain in the first week after weaning has an enormous impact on subsequent performance. The pig is challenged in terms of nutritional, thermal, and emotional health, a fact that affects the behavior and the hormonal balance of the animals (Orgeur et al, 2002). There is an occurrence of atrophy and loss of villus in the small intestine due to colonization of pathogenic bacteria, leading to losses in digestion and absorption of nutrients. In many cases, it is necessary a period from 10 to 14 days for animal to recover the level of energy consumption as in the days prior to weaning

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Results