The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of total dietary fiber level on nutrient digestibility and the relationship between apparent total tract digestibility of total dietary fiber, and soluble dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber and available energy. Sugar beet pulp was as the only fiber source. The experiment was designed as a 6 × 6 Latin square with an adaptation period of 7 d followed by a 5-d total collection of feces and urine. Feed intake tended to decrease (P =0.10) as total dietary fiber level increased. The apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and gross energy decreased (P <0.01) when total dietary fiber increased but the digestibility of soluble dietary fiber and insoluble dietary fiber increased (P <0.01). The digestible energy and metabolizable energy content of diets decreased (P <0.01) as the total dietary fiber increased.

Probiotics are important for pigs to enhance health and intestinal development, which are potential alternative to antibiotics. Many studies have reported the functions of single bacterial strain as probiotic on the animals. In this study, we evaluated effects of combined probiotics on growth performance, inflammation and intestinal microbiota in weaned pigs. One hundred and eight pigs, weaned at 28 day old (7.12 ± 0.08 kg), were randomly divided into the 3 dietary treatments with 6 pens and 6 pigs per pen (half male and half female). The experimental period lasted for 28 days and treatments were as follows: i. Control: basal diet; ii. Antibiotic: the basal diet plus 75 mg· kg− 1 chlortetracycline; and iii. Probiotics: basal diet plus 4% compound probiotics. Supplementation probiotics improved average daily gain over the entire 28 days (P < 0.01) and feed efficiency in the last 14 days (P < 0.05) compared with the other two groups. Both probiotics and antibiotic supplementation decreased concentrations of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (P < 0.05) and interferon-γ (P < 0.01). Probiotics group had greater abundance of Lactobacillus in the caecal digesta and Firmicutes in the colonic digesta, while both probiotics and antibiotic supplementation inhibited Treponema_2 and Anaerovibrio in the caecal digesta. Caecal acetic and propionic acid (P < 0.05) of probiotics group were higher than the other two groups, whereas concentrations of colonic lactic acid and propionic acid (P < 0.05) of antibiotic group were lower than control and probiotics groups. These findings suggest that combined supplementation of Lactobacillus fermentum and Pediococcus acidilactici regulate the gut health and improve the host ADG and F/G by decreasing serum pro-inflammatory factors (IL-6, IFN-γ), promoting beneficial bacteria (Lactobacillus in the caecal digesta and Firmicutes in the colonic digesta), enhancing production of short chain fatty acids, and inhibiting pathogens (Treponema_2, Anaerovibrio in the caecal digesta).

The nutrient composition of corn is variable. To prevent unforeseen reductions in growth performance, grading and analytical methods are used to minimize nutrient variability between calculated and analyzed values. This experiment was carried out to define the sources of variation in the energy content of corn and to develop a practical method to accurately estimate the digestible energy (DE) and metabolisable energy (ME) content of individual corn samples for growing pigs. Twenty samples were taken from each of five provinces in China (Jilin, Hebei, Shandong, Liaoning, and Henan) to obtain a range of quality.

Background: Probiotics are used as a means to improve animal health and intestinal development. Saccharomyces boulardii is a well-known probiotic; however, few studies have examined the effects of S. boulardii on weaned piglet performance. Therefore, this 28-day study compared the effects of S. boulardii mafic-1701 and aureomycin in diets for weaned piglets on growth performance, antioxidant parameters, inflammation and intestinal microbiota. One hundred and eight piglets, weaned at 28 d of age (8.5 ± 1.1 kg), were randomly divided into the three dietary treatment groups with six pens and six piglets per pen (half male and half female). The dietary treatment groups were as follows: 1) basal diet (CON); 2) basal diet supplemented with 75 mg/kg aureomycin (ANT); 3) basal diet supplemented with 1 × 10⁸ CFU/kg S. boulardii mafic-1701 (SB). Results: Compared to CON group, SB group had higher feed efficiency (P < 0.05) in the last 14 d and lower diarrhea rate (P < 0.05) over the entire 28 d. Total superoxide dismutase in serum was markedly increased in SB group (P < 0.05). Moreover, compared with CON group, SB group decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (P < 0.01) and Tumor necrosis factor-α (P < 0.05) in jejunum. Supplementation of S. boulardii mafic-1701 increased the abundance of Ruminococcaceae_UCG_009 and Turicibacter (P < 0.05), whereas the abundance of unclassified_Clostridiaceae_4 was decreased (P < 0.05). Furthermore, S. boulardii mafic-1701 administration increased cecal concentration of microbial metabolites, isobutyrate and valerate (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The improvement in feed conversion ratio, reduction in diarrhea rate in weaned piglets provided diets supplemented with S. boulardii mafic-1701 may be associated with enhanced antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory responses and improved intestinal microbial ecology.

The high mortality of pre-weanling piglets is a dominant challenge which severely restricts the development of pig industry. A number of factors including nutrients imbalance and temperature variation during postnatal period of piglets have been reported to closely associated with the high mortality of postnatal piglets. This study aims to find out the relationship between fat deposition and survival of newborn piglets. There were no differences in organ coefficient and bone density between the surviving and dead piglets (P > 0.05). The body weight and the fat deposition in the dead piglets were lower than the live individuals (P < 0.05). Consistently, the average sizes of white adipocytes in back and abdominal adipose tissues of dead piglets were smaller than the survivals (P < 0.05). The protein expression levels of adipocyte differentiation markers PPARγ and C/EBPα in the back and abdominal adipose tissues were lower in dead piglets compared to live piglets. The mRNA expressions of thermogenic markers PGC1α and PRDM16 in adipose tissues were decreased in the dead piglets (P < 0.05). The microarray of back fat samples from the surviving and dead piglets were conducted; two down-regulated genes namely AAMDC and CASTOR1 were identified from the dead piglets. According to quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) analysis, the mRNA expression of AAMDC decreased, whereas CASTOR1 expression elevated in the dead piglets compared to the surviving piglets (P < 0.05). The fat deposition and adipocyte differentiation in the dead piglets are insufficient compared to the surviving piglets, which may attenuate the thermogenic ability of white adipose tissue (WAT). Our data indicate that fat deposition in newborn piglets is vital to their survival.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplemental magnesium (Mg) on the performance of gilts and parity 3 sows and their piglets. Fifty-six gilts (Trial 1) and 56 sows (Trial 2) were assigned to one of 4 treatments according to their mating weight, respectively. The treatments comprised corn-soybean meal based gestation and lactation diets (0.21% magnesium) supplemented with 0, 0.015, 0.03, or 0.045% Mg from mating until weaning. The results showed that magnesium supplementation significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the weaning to estrus interval in both gilts and sows. There were significant effects (P < 0.05) of supplemental magnesium on the total number of piglets born, born alive and weaned in sows. In late gestation and lactation, the digestibility of crude fiber (quadratic effects, P < 0.05), and crude protein (P < 0.05), were significantly influenced by magnesium in gilts and sows, respectively. There were differences among the 4 groups in terms of the apparent digestibility of dry matter and crude fiber in sows (P < 0.05) during both early and late gestation. The apparent digestibility of gross energy was increased for sows in late gestation (P < 0.05), and lactation (quadratic effects, P < 0.05). At farrowing and weaning, serum prolactin levels and alkaline phosphate activities linearly increased in sows as the Mg supplementation increased (P < 0.05). Serum Mg of sows at farrowing and serum urea nitrogen of sows at weaning was significantly influenced by Mg supplementation (P < 0.05). The Mg concentration in sow colostrum and the serum of their piglets were increased by supplemental magnesium (P < 0.05). In addition, growth hormone levels were linearly elevated (P < 0.05) in the serum of piglets suckling sows. Our data demonstrated that supplemental magnesium has the potential to improve the reproduction performance of sows, and the suitable supplemental dose ranged from 0.015% to 0.03%.