Performance and intestinal health of weanling pigs fed with dietary nucleotides

Abstract

Previous studies reported benefits to growth performance, intestinal histology and reduced diarrhea for pigs supplemented with nucleotide additive as a replacement to antimicrobial growth promoters. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of nucleotide levels on performance, occurrence of diarrhea, relative weight of organs, intestinal histology, and intestinal microbiota of weanling pigs. One hundred and sixty 21-d weaned pigs (6.43 ± 0.71 kg BW) were used in a randomized complete block design experiment with five treatments, eight replications per treatment and four animals per pen (experimental unit). The treatments were basal diet with 120 ppm of chloro-hydroxyquinoline (antimicrobial), and basal diet with 0 (control), 100, 150, or 200 ppm of nucleotides. The average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), gain to feed ratio (G:F), and occurrence of diarrhea were calculated from day 1 to 14, day 14 to 34, and day 1 to 34 of the experiment. A day after the end of the experiment, one animal from each pen was slaughtered to evaluate the relative weight of organs, intestinal histology, and intestinal microbiota. From day 1-14 and day 14-34 of the experiment, performance was not affected by the treatments. For the total experimental period (day 1-34), increasing the dietary concentrations of nucleotides linearly improved the final body weight and average daily gain. Salmonella spp. was detected only in the control treatment, without affecting the other microorganisms. Pigs fed with antibiotic had a lower occurrence of diarrhea from day 1-14 compared to pigs fed with nucleotide treatments. Although increasing the occurrence of diarrhea in the first 14 days, dietary nucleotides added up to 200 ppm, improve the final body weight and average daily gain at 34 days post weaning. Nucleotides and antimicrobial not shown beneficial effects on organ weights, and intestinal histology of nursery pig, however, are able to decrease the population of Salmonella spp. at small intestine.

Effects of dietary supplementation of red pepper (Schinus terebinthifoliusRaddi) essential oil on performance, small intestinal morphology and microbial counts of weanling pigs

“…Data from this study corroborate those obtained by Gois et al . and Andrade et al . In other study, Perina et al .…”

Effects of nucleotides administration on growth performance and immune response of post-weaning piglets

“…Over the years, several studies investigated the effect of nucleotides on animals' performances, but results are still contrasting or, at least, variable (Lee et al 2007;Martinez-Puig et al 2007;de Andrade et al 2016). The results of our trial on growth performance confirm the positive effect of nucleotides administration in the first week post-weaning, as reported by Weaver and Kim (2014), but also a further improvement of growth rates in the subsequent weeks of the experiment was observed.…”

Dietary supplementation with hydrolyzed yeast and its effect on the performance, intestinal microbiota, and immune response of weaned piglets

“…This decrease in feed intake is responsible for a reduction in the villi height and alterations in the depth of the intestinal crypts, decreasing the digestive capacity and nutrient uptake (Lallès et al 2007, Pluske et al 1997. Therefore, in the present study, the probable re-establishment of intestinal integrity and functions due to the high concentration of Nu in AY may have been a determinant of the better performance of weaned piglets, as the inclusion of Nu in the diets at the level of 500 ppm improved performance and decreased the incidence of diarrhea (Martinez-Puig et al 2007), and at the 200 ppm level, it increased the final weight and daily weight gain of weaned piglets (Andrade et al 2016).…”