Influence of lipopolysaccharide-induced immune challenge and diet complexity on growth performance and acute-phase protein production in segregated early-weaned pigs

Segregated early-weaned pigs (initially 4.0 kg and 14 +/- 1.5 d of age) were used to quantify the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced immune challenge and nursery diet complexity (complex, medium, and simple) on growth performance and haptoglobin production. Three treatments of immune challenge consisted of pigs given ad libitum access to feed (control), challenged with LPS and given ad libitum access to feed (LPS-challenged), or pair-fed to receive the same amount of feed as the LPS-challenged pigs (pair-fed). The absence of interactions (P > .10) between diet complexity and immune challenge with LPS indicated that the responses were independent. Control pigs were the heaviest (P < .01), LPS-challenged the lightest (P < .01), and pair-fed intermediate in weight on d 18 after weaning. Approximately two thirds of the decreased growth of LPS-challenged pigs was due to decreased ADFI and one third was due to decreased feed efficiency (G/F). Pigs fed the complex diet were heaviest (P < .05), and pigs fed the simple diet were lightest (P < .05) on d 18 after weaning. The increased growth of pigs fed the complex compared with those fed the medium diet was due to the increased ADFI of the former. The decreased growth of pigs fed the simple diet compared with those fed the medium or complex diets was due to both decreased ADFI and G/F. The LPS-challenged pigs had increased (P < .01) haptoglobin concentrations, suggesting that inflammatory cytokine production was higher in immune-challenged pigs. These data suggest that LPS immune challenge caused decreased growth by decreasing ADFI and altering nutrient partitioning and that growth responses to diet complexity are independent of immune challenge.