Open AccessStimbiotic supplementation improved performance and reduced inflammatory response via stimulating fiber fermenting microbiome in weaner pigs housed in a poor sanitary environment and fed an antibiotic-free low zinc oxide diet
Author(s) -
Hyun Min Cho,
Gemma González-Ortiz,
Diego Melo-Durán,
Jung Min Heo,
Gustavo Cordero,
M.R. Bedford,
Jae-Cheol Kim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0240264
Subject(s) - feces , chemistry , meal , fermentation , zoology , food science , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
This study investigated whether the inclusion of a stimbiotic (STB) can improve performance, influence intestinal microbiota and fermentation activity, and reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines in piglets fed a low zinc oxide diet without antimicrobial growth promotors compared to fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) and mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) when housed either in good sanitary (GS) or poor sanitary (PS) environments. One hundred forty-four male pigs (28-day-old) were sorted by initial body weight (BW) and allocated to one of six experimental treatments: 1) GS environment without any additive (GS-CTR); 2) GS environment with 0.01% stimbiotic (GS-STB); 3) PS environment (without cleaning and disinfection of a previously populated room) without any additive (PS-CTR); 4) PS environment with 0.01% STB (PS-STB); 5) PS environment with 0.1% MOS (PS-MOS); and 6) PS environment with 0.2% FOS (PS-FOS). Each treatment had six replicates, with four animals each. Three feeding phases, based on corn, wheat, and soybean meal were available ad libitum for the 42-days of the study. Housing piglets under PS conditions negatively influenced performance, increased plasma tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), affected the fecal microbial populations and increased concentrations of branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA) compared to GS. Stimbiotic improved 42-d-BW under PS conditions ( P < 0.05) whereas MOS or FOS had no effect. On d35, plasma TNF-α was reduced with STB in PS ( P < 0.05). The ratio between VFA:BCFA increased ( P < 0.05) with STB, MOS or FOS in PS, and under GS condition, STB also increased the ratio. Stimbiotic increased the proportion of Clostridiales Family XIII Incertae Sedis and Clostridiaceae , while MOS and FOS increased Selenomonadaceae , Catabacteriaceae and Fibrobacteraceae . These results indicate that STB shifted the intestinal microbiome to favor fiber fermentation which likely contributed to reduced inflammatory response and improved performance, particularly in piglets reared in PS conditions.