Fermented feeds are being considered as practical alternatives to antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP) supplemented in nursery pig diets. This study aimed to investigate health-promoting effects of fermented barley in weaned pigs challenged with Escherichia coli K88 +. A total of 37 piglets were weaned at 21 ± 1 day of age (6.41 ± 0.47 kg of BW) and assigned to either of the following five treatment groups: (1) unchallenged control (UCC; n = 7), (2) challenged control (CC; n = 7), (3) AGP (CC + 0.1% AGP; n = 7), (4) Ferm1 (challenged and fed homofermentative Lactobacillus plantarum (Homo)-fermented barley; n = 8) and (5) Ferm2 (challenged and fed heterofermentative L. buchneri (Hetero)-fermented barley; n = 8). The control diet included unfermented barley. Barley was fermented with either Homo or Hetero for 90 days under anaerobic conditions. On day 10, all pigs except those in UCC group were orally inoculated with E. coli K88 + (6 × 109 colony forming units/ml). The pre-planned orthogonal test was performed to compare (1) UCC and CC, (2) CC and AGP, (3) CC and Ferm1 + Ferm2, as well as (4) Ferm1 and Ferm2. Challenged control pigs showed shorter (P < 0.05) villus height (VH) in the duodenum and deeper (P < 0.05) crypt depth (CD) in the jejunum than UCC pigs. The AGP group had higher (P < 0.05) VH and lower (P < 0.05) IL-6 gene expression in the jejunum compared with CC group. Compared to CC, Ferm1 and Ferm2 had decreased (P < 0.05) CD in the duodenum, IL-6 gene expression in the jejunum and rectal temperature at 24 h post-challenge. Pigs fed fermented barley diets showed greater (P < 0.05) faecal abundance of Clostridium Cluster IV and Lactobacilli than those fed UCC diet. Ferm2-fed pigs showed lower (P < 0.05) concentrations of band cells, eosinophils and lymphocytes at 6, 24 and 48 h after challenge, respectively, and lower (P < 0.05) faecal abundance of Enterobacteriaceae 24 h after challenge than the Ferm1-fed pigs. In conclusion, the substitution of unfermented barley with fermented barley in a nursery diet showed similar results as those shown by AGP supplementation in terms of enhancing the intestinal morphology and modulating faecal microbiota composition, as well as down-regulating the pro-inflammatory cytokines; therefore, fermented barley can be a possible nutritional strategy for managing nursery pigs fed diets without in-feed AGP.

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This study was conducted to determine the energy content and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients of diets containing Lactobacillus-fermented barley or wheat fed to weaned pigs. Thirty-six weaned pigs (8.14 ± 0.65 kg of body weight) were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 diets in a completely randomized design to give 6 replicates per diet. Pigs were individually housed in metabolism crates to determine digestible energy and metabolizable energy contents. Net energy was also calculated from the average of 2 equations published by Noblet et al. (1994). Diets were fed at 2.5 times the maintenance energy requirement for 10 d of adaptation and 5 d of total but separate urine and fecal collection. Samples of barley or wheat were fermented for 90 d under anaerobic conditions with an inoculum of either homofermentative Lactobacillus plantarum (Homo) or heterofermentative L. buchneri (Hetero). Three diets were formulated based on either barley or wheat to consist of a control diet containing 42% unfermented grain and 2 diets containing either Homo-fermented or Hetero-fermented grain. Preplanned contrasts were used to evaluate the effects of the inclusion of fermented barley or wheat and to compare the effects of Homo-fermented with Hetero-fermented grains. Fermented wheat inclusion in a diet increased ATTD of gross energy and phosphorus, and retention of gross energy by 1.9%, 6.8%, and 6.3%, respectively. Also, fermented wheat diets had greater (P < 0.05) metabolizable energy content and tended to have greater (P ≤ 0.10) net energy content than unfermented wheat diets. However, inclusion of fermented barley did not increase nutrient and energy digestibility. Hetero-fermented diets contained greater (P < 0.05) digestible energy and net energy content (DM basis) than Homo-fermented diets. Pigs fed barley-based diets showed less (P < 0.05) ATTD of DM, nitrogen, and gross energy than those fed wheat-based diets. In conclusion, wheat fermented with Lactobacillus-inoculum can be beneficially substituted for unfermented wheat, improving the ATTD of nutrient and energy, nitrogen retention, and energy content. Also, Hetero-inoculum is preferable to Homo-inoculum for grain fermentation considering greater energy content in weaned pigs.

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