Weaned pig responses to Escherichia coli K88 oral challenge when receiving a lysozyme supplement1,2

Abstract

Lysozyme is a low-molecular-weight protein with antimicrobial properties. An experiment was conducted to investigate the response of piglets receiving a water-soluble lysozyme supplement [Entegard (EG), Neova Technologies Inc., Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada; 4,000 lysozyme units/mg] after oral challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). A total of 36 individually housed weanling pigs were randomly allotted to 1 of the 4 treatments, with 9 replicates per treatment. Treatments were a control (CONT, no additive), antibiotic (AB; 2.5 g/kg of feed of antibiotic with chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and penicillin), and EG delivered in the drinking water at concentrations of 0.1% (EG1) and 0.2% (EG2). All pigs received a basal diet similar in composition and nutrients, except for pigs receiving the AB diet, which had an added antibiotic. Pigs were acclimated to treatments for a 7-d period to monitor growth performance. On d 8, blood samples were collected from each pig to obtain serum, and each pig was gavaged with 6 mL (2 × 10(9) cfu/mL) of ETEC solution. Pigs were monitored for another 7 d to assess incidences of diarrhea and growth performance, and then all pigs were killed to obtain intestinal tissue and digesta samples. Treatments did not influence growth performance throughout the study. Greater ETEC counts were observed in the ileal mucosal scrapings (P = 0.001) and colonic digesta (P = 0.025) of pigs in the CONT group compared with pigs in the AB and EG1 groups. Pigs receiving AB and EG1 had greater (P < 0.05) small intestinal weights and ileal villus heights than pigs receiving CONT; however, the ileal villus height-to-crypt depth ratio was greater in pigs fed the AB diet (1.69) compared with those fed the CONT diet (1.34), whereas pigs receiving EG1 were intermediate. Pigs in the EG1 group showed greater (P < 0.001) serum tumor necrosis factor α and IL-6 concentrations before ETEC challenge; however, at 7 d postchallenge, pigs receiving EG2 showed the least (P < 0.05) circulating tumor necrosis factor α and IL-6 concentrations. Overall, better intestinal growth and development, as well as decreased ETEC counts on the intestinal mucosa and serum proinflammatory cytokines, suggest that EG can maintain gut health and function in piglets commensurate with antibiotics. However, it is noteworthy that at the largest dose tested, EG seemed to have a dramatic effect on proinflammatory cytokines but had a minimal or no effect on the other response criteria.

Modulatory Effects of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide on Intestinal Mucosal Immunity and Microbial Community of Weaned Piglets Challenged by an Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (K88)

“…The experiment was aimed to investigate whether exogenous VIP would protect against ETEC infection of piglets fed a diet without supplemental antibiotics. The current results indicated that the growth performance was impaired, and incidence of diarrhea was increased in piglets challenged by enterotoxigenic ETEC K88, which was in consistent with previous observation [17], [18], [21]. ETEC K88 is a major cause of diarrhea and death in neonatal and weaned pigs [22].…”

Granulated lysozyme as an alternative to antibiotics improves growth performance and small intestinal morphology of 10-day-old pigs1

“…However, duodenal villus heights were increased in chicks consimiing lysozyme. Similar to the current experiment, Nyachoti et al (2011) observed increased villus heights in the ileum.…”

“…However, only the number of coliforms present in the lower small intestine of the hLZ-fed group was different from that of the group fed the control diet. Similarly, Nyachoti et al (2011) observed decreased coliforms in mucosal scrapings from pigs challenged with E. coli K88 and consinning a water-soluble lysozyme.…”

Characterization of bioactive recombinant antimicrobial peptide parasin I fused with human lysozyme expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris system

“…Human lysozyme (hLY) is a 130 amino acid protein with a molecular weight of 14.7 kDa [14], it plays important roles as a non-specific immune factor and anti-inflammatory factor [15], also hLY is active against gram-positive bacteria and is used as a safety protein in food products, medicine feed, baby formula, and so on [16,17]. It is reported that rice expressing lysozyme has antibioticlike properties when fed to chicks [18], lysozyme supplementation as an alternative to antibiotics improves growth performance and intestinal function of chicken [19], weaning piglets [20] and nursery pigs [21,22] under direct or indirect challenge. All these indicated hLY a good candidate as chaperone protein fused with AMPs in our present study.…”