The relationship between pigs' intestinal microbiota and growth performance is of great importance for improving piglets’ health and reducing antimicrobial use. We found that gut microbiota variation is significantly associated with growth during weaning and the early nursery period.

Dietary fiber (DF) supplementation is one of the strategies to prevent on-farm infections; it has the capability to improve gut health and piglet performance. Among the beneficial DFs, micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) is a new-generation plant-derived innovative feed ingredient; MFC, originating from sugar-beet pulp, has a hyper-branched structure with the ability to form shear-thinning hydrogel and has a high water-binding capacity. We aimed to determine the effects of MFC supplementation on piglets' performance before and after weaning. We included 45 sows and their piglets in this trial and monitored the results until the piglets were 7 weeks old. Piglets supplemented with MFC had higher body weight and average daily growth (ADG) than did control piglets, both pre- and post-weaning. In addition, MFC supplementation in post-weaning piglets improved butyrate content, and reduced diarrhea incidence. These phenomena, perhaps due to the MFC supplementation at different stages until age 7 weeks. In addition, after weaning, MFC supplementation stimulated the growth of butyrate-producing bacteria such as Ruminococcus.2, Ruminococcaceae.UCG.014, Intestinibacter, Roseburia, and Oribacterium genera, as well as reduced the pathogenic bacteria, such as Campylobacter, and Escherichia. Evidently, supplementation of MFC in feed to young piglets can improve growth performance and butyric acid content and reduce post-weaning diarrhea.

Background: Litter size is going up in modern pig production. Due to large litter size and increased farrowing duration, newborn piglets, during parturition, can suffer from asphyxiation. This alters their blood energy parameters and can contribute to their reduced vitality at birth, which is detrimental to their growth performance and survival. We aimed to evaluate the effects of vitality score, piglets’ umbilical cord blood lactate, glucose, and butyrate, and birth order on growth performance and the preweaning mortality of piglets.Results: The more vital (vitality score 2, VS2) piglets had higher umbilical cord blood glucose and butyrate, lower blood lactate, and higher colostrum intake (CI) at birth, and showed higher body weight at birth and at weaning than did less vital piglets (vitality score 1, VS1). Umbilical cord lactate negatively correlated with vitality, colostrum intake, and growth before weaning. Among the four birth-order groups (BOGs), piglets born earlier during parturition had a higher mean vitality score than those born later. BOG1 and BOG2 had significantly higher CI (p < 0.05) than BOG3 and BOG4.Conclusion: Changes in piglets’ body weight, colostrum intake, and umbilical cord lactate are associated with piglet vitality and asphyxiation during farrowing. In addition, asphyxiation induced higher umbilical cord lactate may serve as an indicator of low vitality and low colostrum consumption. Overall, improvement in piglets’ vitality and in the farrowing process can help in reducing piglet mortality.

The weaning process represents a delicate phase for piglets, and is often characterized by lower feed intake, lower weight gain, diarrhea, and ultimately increased mortality. We aimed to determine the effects of RAC supplementation in diets on improving piglet growth and vitality, reducing post-weaning diarrhea, and enhancing gut health. In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment, we selected forty sows and their piglets. Piglets were followed until seven weeks of age. There were no significant differences found between RAC treated and control piglets until weaning (p = 0.26). However, three weeks after weaning, RAC treated piglets had higher body weight and average daily growth (ADG) than the control piglets (p = 0.003). In addition, the piglets that received RAC after weaning, irrespective of mother or prior creep feed treatment, had lower post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) and fecal myeloperoxidase (MPO) level than control piglets. Gut microbiota analysis in post-weaning piglets revealed that RAC supplementation significantly increased Lachnospiraceae_unclassified, Blautia, Butyricicoccus, Gemmiger and Holdemanella, and decreased Bacteroidales_unclassified. Overall, RAC supplementation to piglets modulated post-weaning gut microbiota, improved growth performance after weaning, reduced post-weaning diarrhea and reduced fecal myeloperoxidase levels. We therefore consider RAC to be a potential natural feed supplement to prevent enteric infections and improve growth performance in weaning piglets.

Background: Weaning is an abrupt and stressful event for piglets, characterized by reduced feed intake, low weight- gain, indigestion, and diarrhea. In addition, during this period, piglets face different stressors and possible infections, making it very urgent to develop alternative feeding strategies to prevent these clinical problems. Dietary fiber (DF) supplementation is one of the strategies to prevent on-farm infections, which has the capability to improve gut health and piglet performance. Among the beneficial DFs, micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC), is a new-generation plant-derived innovative feed ingredient; it originates from sugar-beet pulp and has a hyper-branched structure with the ability to form shear-thinning hydrogel and a high water-binding capacity. We therefore aimed to determine the effects of MFC supplementation on performance of piglets before and after weaning. We included 45 sows and their piglets in this trial and monitored the results until piglets were seven weeks of age. Sows received 75 g during gestation and 100 g MFC during lactation. Pre-weaning and post-weaning piglets’ diets contained 1% of MFC for creep feed and 2% as post-weaning feed.Results: Piglets supplemented with MFC had higher body weight and average daily growth (ADG) at pre- and post-weaning than did control piglets. MFC supplementation also increased fecal total volatile fatty acids (VFA), especially butyrate content, and reduced diarrhea incidence post-weaning. Ruminococcus, Roseburia, Intestinibacter, and Oribacterium genera were highly abundant in MFC piglets, whereas, Escherichia_Shigella, Campylobacter, and Parabacteroides were higher in control piglets.Conclusion: MFC-supplemented piglets exhibited superior intestinal health and production performance after weaning, perhaps due to changes in their intestinal development, and improved intestinal permeability attributable to the MFC supplementation to piglets at different stages until seven weeks of age. In addition, VFA, specially butyrate, may play a crucial role in growth of mucosa and in enterocyte differentiation, and may improve barrier function. MFC supplementation stimulated growth of butyrate- producing bacteria and reduced pathogenic bacteria. It is evident that supplementation of MFC in feed to young piglets can improve growth performance and volatile fatty-acid content and reduce post-weaning diarrhea.