The effects of dietary sodium butyrate supplementation on the growth performance, carcass traits and intestinal microbiota of growing‐finishing pigs

Abstract

Aim This study was carried out to investigate the effects of dietary sodium butyrate supplementation on growth performance, carcass traits and intestinal of growing‐finishing pigs. Methods and Results Thirty pigs (27·4 ± 0·4 kg) were randomly assigned to receive one of three diets: basal diet (negative control group), basal diet + 40 ppm zinc bacitracin (positive control group) and basal diet + 0·2% sodium butyrate (sodium butyrate group), respectively. The experiment lasted for 69 days, including 3 days for diet and housing condition adaptation. On day 70, five piglets from each diet group were slaughtered for collecting blood and tissue samples. When compared to the control group, final body weight, daily body weight gain and daily feed intake of pigs in the sodium butyrate group were increased (P < 0·05) and feed intake/body weight gain ratio was decreased (P < 0·05). Carcass weight of pigs in the sodium butyrate group was higher than that of pigs in the negative and positive groups (P < 0·05); backfat thickness of pigs in the positive group was higher than that of pigs in the negative group and sodium butyrate group (P < 0·001). When compared to the negative and positive groups, pigs fed diet supplemented with sodium butyrate showed a increased relative abundance of bacteroidetes in the caecum and a decreased relative abundance of fiemicutes and proteobacteria in the caecum (P < 0·05). Conclusion The results indicated that dietary sodium butyrate supplementation increased growth performance of growing‐finishing pigs and improved the carcass traits and intestinal health. Significance and Impact of the Study Antibiotic‐free feed has become an inevitable worldwide trend. This study showed that dietary sodium butyrate supplementation improved the growth performance and intestinal health of growing‐finishing pigs. Thus, sodium butyrate can be applied in growing‐finishing pig feed as an alternative of antibiotics.

Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Protected Sodium Butyrate on Gut Microbiota in Growing-Finishing Pigs

“…It is interesting to note that the high alpha diversity values observed for both groups in our study were similar to those found in sows [1], suggesting an adult and therefore more stable microbiota composition [44], which would likely preclude finding major overall differences in biodiversity. Although in one previous study it was found a reduction of the microbiota diversity after sodium butyrate supplementation, it may have been related to the use of a reduced dose of two antibiotics, colistin and kitasamycin, along with the organic acid [40], as both antibiotics likely had some impact on specific microbial populations [41].…”

“…Most studies focused on the impact that the use of PSB may have on the pig gut microbiota have been usually performed on young piglets (mostly from birth to postweaning) treated for a short period of time [36][37][38][39]. There is only a single recent study on the effect of dietary sodium butyrate in a population of growing-finishing pigs, after being treated for a long period (69 days) [40]. However, in contrast to our study, the samples were collected from the caecum.…”

Impact of Intestinal Microbiota on Growth and Feed Efficiency in Pigs: A Review

“…The coating of prebiotics or SCFA may be necessary to reach the targeted gut site. Supplementing pig diets with (coated) butyrate has already been used as an efficient strategy to enhance epithelial morphology, homeostasis, and microbiota balance post-weaning [93,94], and has been related to improved growth performance, carcass composition and FE in growing pigs [95]. As pigs of lower FE seem to have a greater response to immune stimuli, increasing the concentrations of anti-inflammatory SCFA (e.g., propionate and butyrate) in the gut may help to moderate an 'over shooting' immune response towards intestinal immune stimuli of the commensal microbiota (e.g., LPS).…”

Timely Control of Gastrointestinal Eubiosis: A Strategic Pillar of Pig Health

“…It is obvious that, although many studies have investigated the effect of antimicrobials on the pig intestinal microbiota, there is no consensus. Considering the same antimicrobials, differences in specific taxa can be observed; e.g., the relative abundance of phylum Bacteroidetes and the lactic acid bacterial genera Lactobacillus and Streptococcus, as well as Coprococcus, has been reported to be both increased and reduced following in-feed antibiotic administration according to the doses, the intestinal segment investigated and the timing of the sampling [147,149,[153][154][155]. Nonetheless, the resilience of the pig gut microbiota and of the dominant taxa to long-term changes due to the administration of antimicrobials is apparent [153,156].…”