Prebiotic Effects on Growth Performance and Immune Health in Nursery Pigs

Abstract Text: Prebiotics are fermentable feed ingredients that allow changes in the composition and (or) activity of the gut microbiota that confer beneficial effects on host health. Chicory has high inulin and oligofructose content and is a prototype prebiotic for monogastrics. The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dietary prebiotics in nursery pigs by evaluating growth performance and immune biomarkers. Sixty-four weaned pigs (age 30 to 32 d; BW 8 ± 0.1 kg) of mixed gender were housed (4 pigs/pen) in an environmentally-controlled nursery with ad libitum access to feed and water over a 35-d study. Pigs were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments: control (53% corn, 32% SBM, 7% fishmeal, 8% others), control + 2.5% Grobiotic-S (GS), control + 0.05% chicory (CL), or control + 0.5% chicory (CH). Feeders and pigs were weighed weekly. On d 21, blood samples were obtained from 3 pigs/treatment for collection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Isolated PBMC were cultured and subsequently challenged with Lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 20 ng/mL). Cell culture supernatants were collected for quantification of cytokines (IL-8 and IL-10). Dietary treatment had no effect on BW. Overall (d 0 to 35), pigs fed GS (0.58 kg) had greater (P < 0.05) ADG compared to control (0.52 kg), CL (0.54 kg), and CH (0.54 kg) pigs.  In addition, ADFI was greater (P < 0.05) for pigs fed CL (0.78 kg), CH (0.78 kg), and GS (0.82 kg) compared to control, and ADFI for GS-fed pigs was greater (P < 0.05) than either CL or CH. No differences in G:F were detected among treatments. Secondary LPS challenge increased (P < 0.05) IL-8 secretion from PBMC isolated from CL (23,732 pg/mL) pigs compared to control (10,061 pg/mL) and CH (12,411 pg/mL) pigs. Secretion of IL-10 from PBMC isolated from CL (63 pg/mL) pigs was greater (P < 0.05) compared to control (28 pg/mL) pigs and tended (P < 0.1) to be greater compared to CH (34 pg/mL) pigs. Results indicate that inclusion of prebiotics in nursery pig diets has positive effects on growth performance and may have immunomodulatory effects (in vitro) on cells isolated from prebiotic-fed pigs.

Keywords: biomarker, pig, prebiotic