Abstract

BackgroundThis study investigated the response of piglets receiving a yeast extract without or with a multi-enzyme mixture compared with an antimicrobial growth promoter (AGP) on performance, immune status and gut structure after an E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Thirty-six pigs were allotted to six treatments including: a non-challenged control (NCC); LPS-challenged control (CC); CC + AGP; CC + yeast extract; CC + enzymes; and CC + enzymes + yeast extract. On d 7, pigs were bled and thereafter injected with LPS or sterile saline. Blood samples were collected at 6, 48, and 96 h post-challenge. After 96 h post-challenge, pigs were euthanized to obtain duodenal, jejunal and ileal samples.ResultsOverall (d 1 to 11), compared with CC pigs, AGP attenuated the LPS-induced reduction in ADG (P = 0.004), ADFI (P = 0.03) and gain/feed ratio (P = 0.01). At 6 h post-challenge, AGP pigs had lower plasma urea N (PUN; P = 0.02) and serum TNF- α concentration (P = 0.07), and higher platelet count (P = 0.04) and serum IL-10 concentration (P = 0.02) than CC pigs. At 48 h post-challenge, AGP pigs had lower PUN (P = 0.02) than CC pigs, whereas enzymes + yeast extract interacted non-additively (P = 0.001) to reduce PUN. At 96 h post-challenge, AGP pigs had lower PUN (P = 0.02) and higher duodenal (P = 0.03), jejunal (P = 0.01) and ileal (P = 0.07) villus height than CC pigs. In addition, enzymes + yeast extract interacted additively and non-additively to reduce ileal IFN-γ (P < 0.0001) and IL-10 (P = 0.012) expression, respectively. Generally, no differences (P > 0.10) were observed between AGP and enzymes + yeast extract pigs on other measured parameters except for the downregulation of ileal IFN-γ (P < 0.0001) and TNF-α (P = 0.003) in enzymes + yeast extract pigs at 96 h post-challenge.ConclusionsThe LPS challenged piglets receiving enzymes + yeast extract showed beneficial responses in gut structure and immunity commensurate with those receiving antibiotics, though the latter had better overall growth performance.

Highlights

  • This study investigated the response of piglets receiving a yeast extract without or with a multi-enzyme mixture compared with an antimicrobial growth promoter (AGP) on performance, immune status and gut structure after an E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge

  • Treatments included: (1) non-challenged control (NCC; pigs fed the basal diet and injected with sterile saline on d 7); (2) LPSchallenged control (CC; pigs fed the basal diet and challenged by injection with E. coli LPS on d 7); (3) CC + AGP (pigs fed the basal diet supplemented with an antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) and challenged with E. coli LPS on d 7); (4) CC + yeast extract; (5) CC + enzymes

  • There was no difference in Average daily gain (ADG) and gain/ feed ratio (G:F) among treatments except that LPSchallenged AGP pigs tended to have higher Average daily feed intake (ADFI) than LPS-challenged pigs receiving the yeast extract (P = 0.06; Table 3)

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Summary

Introduction

This study investigated the response of piglets receiving a yeast extract without or with a multi-enzyme mixture compared with an antimicrobial growth promoter (AGP) on performance, immune status and gut structure after an E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. The piglet enterocytes and immune cells have a high rate of replication but this is hampered by their limited capacity for de novo synthesis of nucleotides [6], the low concentration of nucleotides in compounded feed [7], and low voluntary feed intake by the piglet due to the transition from liquid to solid feed [8]. This may result in gut atrophy and slow maturation of both the digestive and immune systems, which determines the ability of the piglet to utilize nutrients for growth and to combat pathogens [8]

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