Abstract
Antibiotics growth promoting (AGP) in animal feed has been restricted. With this, several additives have been tested in order to replace AGP and ensure intestinal health. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a blend of additives on growth performance, diarrhea incidence and cecal content microbiota of nursery pigs. A total of 576 weaned pigs (6.21 ± 1.16 kg) were assigned into 4 treatments (12 replicates) in randomized block design: basal diet without additives (NC); basal diet with 120 ppm of halquinol (PC); NC + 0,05% blend of lactic acid (3,5%), benzoic acid (2,5%), flavonoids (3,5%) (B5); NC+ 0,1% of same blend (B10). The pigs were weighed 0 and 42 days into the experiment. On day 10, one animal per pen (10 replicates) was euthanized for microbiota analyses. The diarrhea incidence was calculated by the percentage of visual pens with diarrhea, by day, in the period. The growth performance was analyzed by GLIMMIX procedure and the means were compared with Tukey test (P < 0.050) (SAS, 2009). Diarrhea incidence was analyzed by GENMOD procedure (SAS, 2009). The Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare microbial biodiversity (P < 0.050) by statistical program STAMP. The final weight (P = 0.010) and average daily gain (P = 0.001) of B10 and PC were higher than NC. Regarding diarrhea, it was observed that the B5 and B10 had lower incidence when compared to other groups in the total period. In the microbiome analyses, it was observed that the B5, B10, and PC groups had lower (P = 0.021) biodiversity when compared to the NC piglets. However, the B5 and B10 group had higher biodiversity when compared to the PC group. In conclusion, the supplementation with 0,1% blend of additives can be a substitute for AGP.
Wheat bran fermented by mixed fungal strains improves the digestibility of crude fiber and may benefit the gut health without impacting the growth performance in weaned pigs
