This is a comprehensive review on the use of nutritional strategies to shape the functioning of the gastro-intestinal tract in suckling and weaned piglets. The progressive development of a piglet’s gut and the associated microbiota and immune system offers a unique window of opportunity for supporting gut health through dietary modulation. This is particularly relevant for large litters, for which sow colostrum and milk are insufficient. The authors have therefore proposed the use of supplemental milk and creep feed with a dual purpose. In addition to providing nutrients to piglets, supplemental milk can also serve as a gut modulator in early life by incorporating functional ingredients with potential long-term benefits. To prepare piglets for weaning, it is important to stimulate the intake of solid feed before weaning, in addition to stimulating the number of piglets eating. The use of functional ingredients in creep feed and a transition diet around the time of weaning helps to habituate piglets to solid feed in general, while also preparing the gut for the digestion and fermentation of specific ingredients. In the first days after weaning (i.e., the acute phase), it is important to maintain high levels of feed intake and focus on nutritional strategies that support good gastric (barrier) function and that avoid overloading the impaired digestion and fermentation capacity of the piglets. In the subsequent maturation phase, the ratio of lysine to energy can be increased gradually in order to stimulate piglet growth. This is because the digestive and fermentation capacity of the piglets is more mature at this stage, thus allowing the inclusion of more fermentable fibres. Taken together, the nutritional strategies addressed in this review provide a structured approach to preparing piglets for success during weaning and the period that follows. The implementation of this approach and the insights to be developed through future research can help to achieve some of the most important goals in pig production: reducing piglet mortality, morbidity and antimicrobial use.

Feather pecking is a key welfare challenge in laying hen husbandry. Feeding of live Hermetia illucens larvae could provide a possible solution to reduce feather pecking in hens. This research investigates effects of dispensing live H. illucens larvae to non-beak trimmed older laying hens on production performance, behavior and welfare. Control treatment hens were provided a commercial diet, while larvae treatment hens were provided live H. illucens larvae (using special dispenser) on top of a soy-free diet. Feather condition, production performance and egg quality were measured during the initiation (67 weeks age) and termination (78 weeks age) of the trial. Behavior of birds was monitored using video recording. Feed conversion ratio, body weight gain and egg laying parameters were similar for both treatments. At termination of the trial, larvae-fed hens exhibited better feather condition in comparison to control hens (p = 0.004). Behavioral observations indicated that larvae provision influenced the number of birds on floor during morning and afternoon hours. In conclusion, live H. illucens larvae could successfully replace soy in diets of older laying hens (in combination with local plant proteins). Provisioning of these insects also had a positive effect on the feather condition of laying hens with intact beaks.

Microbiota play an important role in total tract nutrient digestion, especially when fibrous diets are fed to pigs. This study aimed to use metagenomics to predict faecal nutrient digestibility in grower‐finisher pigs. The study design consisted of 160 three‐way crossbreed grower‐finisher pigs (80 female and 80 male) which were either fed a diet based on corn/soybean meal or a more fibrous diet based on wheat/barley/by‐products. On the day before slaughter, faecal samples were collected and used to determine faecal digestibility of dry matter, ash, organic matter, crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre and non‐starch polysaccharides. The faecal samples were also sequenced for the 16S hypervariable region of bacteria (V3/V4) to profile the faecal microbiome. With these data, we calculated the between‐animal variation in faecal nutrient digestibility associated with variation in the faecal microbiome, that is the “microbiability”. The microbiability values were significantly greater than zero for dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, crude fibre and non‐starch polysaccharides, ranging from 0.58 to 0.93, as well as for crude fat with a value of 0.37, but not significantly different from zero for ash. Using leave‐one‐out cross‐validation, we estimated the accuracy of predicting digestibility values of individual pigs based on their faecal microbiota composition. The accuracies of prediction for crude fat and ash digestibility were virtually 0, and for the other nutrients, the accuracies ranged from 0.42 to 0.63. In conclusion, the faecal microbiota composition gave high microbiability values for faecal digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, crude fibre and non‐starch polysaccharides. The accuracies of prediction are relatively low if the interest is in precisely predicting faecal nutrient digestibility of individual pigs, but are promising from the perspective of ranking animals in a genetic selection context.

Several factors predisposing to necrotic enteritis (NE) have been identified, including diet and Eimeria spp. infestations. Coccidiosis vaccines are indicated to decrease the intestinal lesions caused by specific Eimeria species that are a known predisposing factor to NE and, consequently, these vaccines could be a holistic approach to the control of NE disease and an alternative solution to coccidiostats. Besides, feed additives have also gained special attention from the poultry industry as an alternative solution to antibiotics to prevent NE as well as other bacterial enteritis. Then, the combination of vaccination against coccidiosis and the supplementation of the diet with feed additives could be a composite approach to the control of NE problems triggered by Eimeria spp. infestation. The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of an attenuated coccidiosis vaccine (EVANT) in combination with different feed additives to prevent the loss of production performance and intestinal lesions in broilers challenged with NE. Healthy day-old broilers (n = 960) were randomly allocated to 6 groups (8 cages/group). Groups 1-2 were left unvaccinated. Groups 3-6 were vaccinated following the manufacturer's instructions. Chickens were grown using a diet favoring the intestinal proliferation of Clostridium perfringens. Moreover, the diets of groups 4-6 were supplemented with medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), butyric acid or phytogenic feed additives (PFA), respectively. A NE infection model was used to challenge groups 2-6; chickens were orally infected with Eimeria maxima (4,500 oocysts) and then C. perfringens (10(8) CFU) at 15 and 20 d, respectively. Birds were monitored and productive parameters recorded until 42 d; intestinal lesions were scored. Results showed that coccidiosis vaccination, with or without the addition of feed additives, decreased intestinal lesions associated with NE and improved the performance of the birds. Besides, the addition of MCFA to the diet decreased intestinal lesions associated to NE in vaccinated animals compared to all treatment groups. Moreover, the same additive improved the feed conversion rate. Therefore, vaccination with a live attenuated coccidiosis vaccine together with in-feed inclusion of MCFA might be a solution to reduce NE in broilers raised antimicrobial and coccidiostat-free.

Background: The palatine tonsils are part of the mucosal immune system and stimulate immune responses through M cell uptake sampling of antigens and bacteria in the tonsillar crypts. Little is known about the development of the tonsillar microbiota and the factors determining the establishment and proliferation of disease-associated bacteria such as Streptococcus suis. In this study, we assessed tonsillar microbiota development in piglets during the first 5 weeks of life and identified the relative importance of maternal and environmental farm parameters influencing the tonsillar microbiota at different ages. Additionally, we studied the effect sow vaccination with a bacterin against S. suis on microbiota development and S. suis colonisation in their offspring. Results: Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region revealed that a diverse tonsillar microbiota is established shortly after birth, which then gradually changes during the first 5 weeks of life without a large impact of weaning on composition or diversity. We found a strong litter effect, with siblings sharing a more similar microbiota compared to non-sibling piglets. Co-housing in rooms, within which litters were housed in separate pens, also had a large impact on microbiota composition. Sow parity and prepartum S. suis bacterin vaccination of sows had weaker but significant associations with microbiota composition, impacting on the abundance of Streptococcus species before and after weaning. Sex and birthweight had limited impact on the tonsillar microbiota, and none of the measured factors had consistent associations with microbiota diversity. Conclusions: The piglet tonsillar microbiota is established shortly after birth. While microbiota development is associated with both environmental and maternal parameters, weaning has limited impact on microbiota composition. Intramuscular vaccination of sows pre-partum had a significant effect on the tonsillar microbiota composition of their piglets. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms shaping the tonsillar microbiota.

Multi-mycotoxin contamination of poultry diets is a recurrent problem, even if the mycotoxins levels are below EU recommendations. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the main studied mycotoxins due to its risks to animal production and health. When evaluating the effects of DON, one must consider that under practical conditions diets will not be contaminated solely with this mycotoxin. In the present study, broiler chickens were fed diets with negligible mycotoxin levels or with naturally or artificially contaminated diets containing approximately 4000 μg/kg DON. Birds were sampled at D14 and D28. Naturally-contaminated diets caused the most harm to the birds, especially the young ones, which presented decreased jejunal villus height and increased lesions, down-regulation of a peptide transporter. At D28 broiler chickens seemed to have adapted to the dietary conditions, when no differences were observed in villus morphometry, together with up-regulation of a carbohydrate transporter. However, intestinal lesions remained present in these older birds.