Dietary supplementation with Acremonium terricola culture alters the gut microbial structure and improves the growth performance, antioxidant status, and immune function of weaning piglets

Abstract

Background Acremonium terricola is used in the feed of dairy animals to promote growth and control diseases. However, the effects of dietary supplementation with A. terricola on the gut microbial structure of weaning piglets remain poorly understood. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with A. terricola culture (ATC) on the growth performance, antioxidant status, immunity, and gut environment of weaning piglets. Sixty piglets were fed a basal diet supplemented with 1 g ATC/kg of basal diet (experimental group). Another 60 piglets did not receive ATC (control group). The intervention lasted for 20 days. Results The experimental group had higher daily weight gain and feed efficiency than did the control group. Significant increases were noted in the levels of serum insulin (P = 0.0018), insulin-like growth factor (P = 0.0018), triiodothyronine (P = 0.0031), immunoglobulin A (P < 0.0001), immunoglobulin M (P = 0.001), immunoglobulin G (P = 0.0001), and interferon γ (P < 0.0001) in the experimental group compared with the levels in the control group. Furthermore, ATC supplementation significantly reduced (P < 0.05) the relative abundance of Shuttleworthia, Succinivibrio, Roseburia, Ruminococcus, and Paludibacter but increased that of Phascolarctobacterium, Megasphaera, Faecalibacterium, and Prevotella in the experimental group compared with that in the control group. Notably, ATC supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (P < 0.05), which is involved in anti-inflammatory activities, gut barrier enhancement, and butyrate production. Conclusions Dietary supplementation with ATC may improve the growth performance, antioxidant status, immunity, and fecal microflora of weaning pigs.

Non-antibiotic feed additives production by Acremonium terricola solid-fermented Camellia oleifera meal

“…), COM can only be used feed additives to partially replace RB, WB and soybean meal. ATCs, used as dietary supplementation in animal feed, can improve growth performance and immune function of animal, which is ascribe to the abound bioactive compounds in A. terricola (Wang et al 2019(Wang et al , 2023, including cordycepin, cordycepic acid, D-mannose, and so on.…”

“…Acremonium terricola (A. terricola), a cordyceps-derived fungus isolated from Cordyceps gurneyiensis (Fan et al 1999), has bioactive compounds, including cordycepin, cordycepic acid (D-mannitol), Dmannose, D-galactose, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid (Li et al 2017), which have diverse biological functions, such as antioxidant, immune regulatory, and anti-in ammatory properties (Li et al 2018). A. terricola cultures (ATCs), generally used as a new type of green feed additive, can play a similar role of antibiotics to promote growth and control diseases for animal (Li et al 2020), likely increasing the digestibility of feed, laying rate and egg quality of poultry, enhancing avor and nutritional value of milk,and actively improving the gastrointestinal ora and immunity of livestock (Li et al 2016(Li et al , 2017(Li et al , 2018Xiao et al 2017;Zheng et al 2019; Wang et al 2019Wang et al , 2023Chen et al 2022). Currently, ATCs are all solid-state fermented from grain (likely corn) and/or grain by-products (likely wheat bran, rice bran, and soybean meal).…”