Abstract

This study was conducted to determine effect of dietary plant extracts on growth performance and intestinal microbiota of weaned piglets. A total of 24 weaned pigs (7.15 ± 0.41 kg BW; 28 d old) were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments (1 pig/pen; 6 pens/treatment) in a complete randomized design. The dietary treatments were 1) a control diet based on corn and soybean meal (CON), 2) CON + 200 ppm garlicon, 3) CON + 200 ppm turmeric oleoresin, and 4) CON + 200 ppm capsicum oleoresin. The dietary treatments did not include spray dried plasma, fishmeal, zinc oxide, and antibiotics to avoid their antibacterial or physiological effects. Pigs were fed respective dietary treatments for 6 weeks. Fecal samples were collected from randomly selected 1 pig per replicate on d 1, 7, 14, 21, and 42 after weaning. Data for growth performance were analyzed using the PROC GLM procedure of SAS. The statistical model for growth performance included dietary effect as a fixed effect. The total DNA extracted from fresh fecal samples was used to amplify the 16S rRNA gene for sequencing in Illumina MiSeq. Sequencing data was quality filtered and analyzed using QIIME software. Plant extracts increased ADG (616 vs. 586 g/d; P < 0.10) during overall experimental period compared with CON, but did not affect average daily feed intake. The dietary plant extracts increased the population of phylum Bacteroidetes and decreased the populations of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, Tenericutes, Actinobacteria, Lentisphaerae and Spirochaetes. In conclusion, dietary plant extracts may improve growth rate of weaned pigs by shifting the gut microbial community of weaned piglets.

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