Isolated Rearing at Lactation Increases Gut Microbial Diversity and Post-weaning Performance in Pigs

Abstract

Environment and diet are two major factors affecting the human gut microbiome. In this study, we used a pig model to determine the impact of these two factors during lactation on the gut microbiome, immune system, and growth performance. We assigned 80 4-day-old pigs from 20 sows to two rearing strategies at lactation: conventional rearing on sow’s milk (SR) or isolated rearing on milk replacer supplemented with solid feed starting on day 10 (IR). At weaning (day 21), SR and IR piglets were co-mingled (10 pens of 4 piglets/pen) and fed the same corn-soybean meal-dried distiller grain with solubles- and antibiotic-free diets for eight feeding phase regimes. Fecal samples were collected on day 21, 62, and 78 for next-generation sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Results indicate that IR significantly increased swine microbial diversity and changed the microbiome structure at day 21. Such changes diminished after the two piglet groups were co-mingled and fed the same diet. Post-weaning growth performance also improved in IR piglets. Toward the end of the nursery period (NP), IR piglets had greater average daily gain (0.49 vs. 0.41 kg/d; P < 0.01) and average daily feed intake (0.61 vs. 0.59 kg/d; P < 0.01) but lower feed efficiency (0.64 vs. 0.68; P = 0.05). Consequently, IR piglets were heavier by 2.9 kg (P < 0.01) at the end of NP, and by 4.1 kg (P = 0.08) at market age compared to SR piglets. Interestingly, pigs from the two groups had similar lean tissue percentage. Random forest analysis showed that members of Leuconostoc and Lactococcus best differentiated the IR and SR piglets at weaning (day 21), were negatively correlated with levels of Foxp3 regulatory T cell populations on day 20, and positively correlated with post-weaning growth performance. Our results suggest that rearing strategies may be managed so as to accelerate early-life establishment of the swine gut microbiome to enhance growth performance in piglets.

ZnO Modulates Swine Gut Microbiota and Improves Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs When Combined with Peptide Cocktail

“…Thus, the increased presence of Streptococcus in the HZ group may help alleviate stress leading to improved growth performance of weaned piglets. Interestingly, bacterial features associated with Streptococcus were also identified as growth-promoting bacteria in pigs in two recent studies [43,62]. Additionally, a low gut relative abundance of Streptococcus was tied to low body weight piglets compared to a high relative abundance found in those of normal body weight [63].…”

Development of Swine’s Digestive Tract Microbiota and Its Relation to Production Indices—A Review

“…It is important in animal production to maintain microbial homeostasis using various strategies, such as optimizing animal diets and ensuring appropriate zoohygienic conditions. Suitable microbiota in the pig gastrointestinal tract can ensure increased health status and thus correct or increased production indices [11,54,[90][91][92].…”

“…Due to the high degree of similarity in anatomy, physiology, immunology and brain growth, domestic swine (Sus scrofa) are considered a clinically important model for the study of factors affecting human gastrointestinal development, immunity and brain development [8,9]. Not only for this reason, but also due to its influence on physiological, nutritional and immunological processes, the structure and functional role of pig intestinal microorganisms has been an important subject of research for decades [10][11][12][13]. This relationship is an important issue for the global pork agribusiness.…”

Life-long dynamics of the swine gut microbiome and their implications in probiotics development and food safety

“…It has been reported that the swine gut microbiome correlated with feed efficiency, fat deposition, and growth performance. [6][7][8][9][10] Despite this progress toward understanding the swine gut microbiome, many important ecological questions are yet to be answered.…”