Effects of encapsulated and non-encapsulated compound acidifiers on gastrointestinal pH and intestinal morphology and function in weaning piglets

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to study the effects of the addition of encapsulated and nonencapsulated compound acidifiers in a diet based on maize-soyabean meal-extruded soyabean on gastrointestinal pH, growth performance, villus height and crypt depth of jejunum, intestinal digestive enzymes activities, microbial population and intestinal mucosal secretory immunoglobulin A in weaning piglets. Sixty-four 28-day-old, crossbred piglets (LandracexLarge White), weighing an average of 7.00±0.10 kg, were randomly assigned to four treatments with four replicates and four piglets (2 male and 2 female) per pen, according to single-factor design principle. The feeding trial lasted 35 days. The results showed that encapsulated compound acidifiers significantly reduced the gastrointestinal pH (P<0.01), and improved the average daily gain and the feed conversion ratio (P<0.05), but they had no significant effect on the average daily feed intake. In addition, encapsulated compound acidifiers significantly increased the ratio between the villus height and crypt depth of jejunum (P<0.01), and stimulated the sucrase activity and lactase activity (P<0.05) as well; during the later weaning period, encapsulated compound acidifiers significantly increased the counts of Lactobacillus and decreased the counts of Escherichia coli in the caecum and the colon (P<0.01); it was also noted that there was an insignificant tendency of lower secretion of intestinal mucosal secretory IgA (P>0.05). These results indicate that the encapsulated compound acidifiers improve the intestinal morphology and function by reducing the gastrointestinal pH, so as to enhance the intestinal adaptation and immunity, and consequently improve the growth performance of weaning piglets.

Impact of protected and non-protected lactic acid used as an acidifier in the diet on Oreochromis niloticus

“…Many studies (Tilman and Eckel, 1998;Tung and Pettigrew, 2003;Jia et al, 2010) supported the results of average daily gain (ADG), specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rate (SR) which were significantly higher in T2 group compared to T1 and T3 with the values of T1 are significantly higher than that of T3 and these studies concluded that, using acidifiers (0.2, 0.3 or 0.5%) significantly (P<0.05) improved BW and WG of O. niloticus (Ramli et al, 2005). In a recent study, the supplementation of the basal diet by 1% Ca-lactate significantly (P<0.001) improved BW, BL, WG and SGR of Nile tilapia, O. niloticus (Mogheth, 2012).…”

Effect of dietary organic zinc sources on growth performance, incidence of diarrhoea, serum and tissue zinc concentrations, and intestinal morphology in growing rabbits

“…Intestinal VH and CD are important indicators of the digestive health of the animal and are directly related to the absorptive capacity of the mucous membrane (Buddle and Bolton, 1992;Jia et al, 2010). Morphological changes in the small intestine, such as shorter villi and deeper crypts, have been related to the presence of toxins, which are primarily related to a reduced feed intake (Gislason et al, 1993;Pluske et al, 1997).…”

Heat shock protein 70 mRNA expression and immune response of heat-stressed finishing broilers fed propolis (bee glue) supplementation

“…Ischemia of the enteric canal can cause epithelial shedding (Rivera et al, 2011), proceeding to shortened villus height and deeper crypt depth. Jia et al (2010) found that both villus height and crypt depth are important indicators of the digestive health of poultry and are directly related to the absorptive capacity of the mucous membrane. In addition, higher villus-to-crypt ratios suggest higher digestive and absorptive capacities in the jejunum (Xu et al, 2009).…”