The use of medicinal zinc oxide (ZnO) must be phased out by 2022, thus prompting an urgent need for alternative strategies to prevent diarrhoea in weaner piglets. The objectives of this study were to assess the impact on weaner piglet performance, diarrhoea incidence and gut development, when (1) dietary ZnO supplementation was substituted by alternative commercial products based on macroalgae, specific probiotics or synbiotics, or (2) dietary ZnO inclusion was reduced from 2500 to 1500 ppm. A total of 4680 DLY piglets (DanBred, Herlev, Denmark), weaned around 35 days of age, were randomly assigned according to sex and BW to six different dietary treatment groups. A basal diet was supplemented with no ZnO (NC = negative control), 2500 ppm ZnO (PC = positive control), 1500 ppm ZnO (RDZ = reduced dose of ZnO) or commercial macroalgae (OceanFeed™ Swine = OFS), probiotic Miya-Gold or synbiotic GærPlus products. The piglets entered and exited the weaner unit at ~7.0 and 30 kg BW, respectively. In-feed ZnO was provided the first 10 days post-weaning, while the alternative supplements were fed throughout the weaner period. As expected, the average daily feed intake, average daily weight gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and diarrhoea incidence were improved in the PC compared to NC group (P < 0.05) during phase 1 consistent with improved indices of villi development observed in subgroups of piglets sacrificed 11 days post-weaning. Reduction of ZnO to 1500 ppm lowered ADG (P < 0.05) and slightly increased incidence of diarrhoea during the first 10 days after weaning (but not later) without affecting FCR. None of the three alternative dietary additives, including a 10-fold increased dose of GærPlus than recommended, improved piglet performance, gut health and gut development above that of NC piglets. The OFS piglets sacrificed 11 days after weaning had significantly lower weights of hindgut tissue and contents compared to the PC group, consistent with antimicrobial activity of the product, which was detected from anaerobic in vitro fermentation. In conclusion, dietary ZnO supplementation during the first 10 days post-weaning may be reduced from 2500 to 1500 ppm without major negative implications for weaner piglet performance and health in herds under a high management level. However, none of the alternative dietary supplements were able to improve piglet performance or gut health, when ZnO was omitted from the diet.

Background: The direct use of medical zinc oxide in feed will be abandoned after 2022 in Europe, leaving an urgent need for substitutes to prevent post-weaning disorders. Results: This study investigated the effect of using rapeseed-seaweed blend (rapeseed meal added two brown macroalgae species Ascophylum nodosum and Saccharina latissima) fermented by lactobacilli (FRS) as feed ingredients in piglet weaning. From d 28 of life to d 85, the piglets were fed one of three different feeding regimens (n = 230 each) with inclusion of 0%, 2.5% and 5% FRS. In this period, no significant difference of piglet performance was found among the three groups. From a subset of piglets (n = 10 from each treatment), blood samples for hematology, biochemistry and immunoglobulin analysis, colon digesta for microbiome analysis, and jejunum and colon tissues for histopathological analyses were collected. The piglets fed with 2.5% FRS manifested alleviated intraepithelial and stromal lymphocytes infiltration in the gut, enhanced colon mucosa barrier relative to the 0% FRS group. The colon microbiota composition was determined using V3 and V1-V8 region 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing by Illumina NextSeq and Oxford Nanopore MinION, respectively. The two amplicon sequencing strategies showed high consistency between the detected bacteria. Both sequencing strategies indicated that inclusion of FRS reshaped the colon microbiome of weaned piglets with increased Shannon diversity. Prevotella stercorea was verified by both methods to be more abundant in the piglets supplied with FRS feed, and its abundance was positively correlated with colonic mucosa thickness but negatively correlated with blood concentrations of leucocytes and IgG. Conclusions: FRS supplementation relieved the gut lymphocyte infiltration of the weaned piglets, improved the colon mucosa barrier with altered microbiota composition. Increasing the dietary inclusion of FRS from 2.5% to 5% did not lead to further improvements.

The feeding of medicinal zinc oxide (ZnO) to weaner piglets will be phased out after 2022 in Europe, leaving pig producers without options to manage post-weaning disorders. This study assessed whether rapeseed meal, fermented alone (FRM) or co-fermented with a single (Ascophylum nodosum; FRMA), or two (A. nodossum and Saccharina latissima; FRMAS) brown macroalagae species, could improve weaner piglet performance and stimulate intestinal development as well as maturation of gut microbiota in the absence of in-feed zinc. Weaned piglets (n = 1240) were fed, during 28–85 days of age, a basal diet with no additives (negative control; NC), 2500 ppm in-feed ZnO (positive control; PC), FRM, FRMA or FRMAS. Piglets fed FRM and FRMA had a similar or numerically improved, respectively, production performance compared to PC piglets. Jejunal villus development was stimulated over NC in PC, FRM and FRMAS (gender-specific). FRM enhanced colon mucosal development and reduced signs of intestinal inflammation. All fermented feeds and PC induced similar changes in the composition and diversity of colon microbiota compared to NC. In conclusion, piglet performance, intestinal development and health indicators were sustained or numerically improved when in-feed zinc was replaced by FRM.

Human immunodeficiency virus continued to be the greatest challenge and killer disease of the 21st century despite the advent of potent highly active antiretroviral therapy which are limited by their severe adverse effects, significant drug interactions, frequent dosing, limited bioavailability, and less access to viral reservoir sites like macrophages. Nano-medicines are becoming new hopes in avoiding these shortcomings of conventional antiretroviral drugs. The emphasis of this review is mainly the application of polymers based nanomedicines in pharmacotherapy of HIV/AIDS. Most of the studies to date on this area are in vitro and human clinical trials are totally missed. However, many interesting points are uncovered through this review like the possibility of achieving high intracellular concentration of drugs, very good antiretroviral activity, improved bioavailability, reduced toxicity and release of the drugs from nanocarriers for long time reducing the need for frequent dosing. Indeed, a lot of assignments left behind for researchers to overcome the challenges hindering the wider application of nanomedicines in treatment of HIV/AIDS.

This study evaluated the effects of increasing doses of pre-fermented rapeseed meal (FRM) without or with inclusion of the brown macroalgae Ascophyllum nodosum (AN) on weaner piglets’ performance and gut development. Ten days pre-weaning, standardized litters were randomly assigned to one of nine isoenergetic and isoproteic diets comprising (on DM basis): no supplement (negative control, NC), 2500 ppm ZnO (positive control, PC), 8, 10, 12, 15 or 25% FRM, and 10% FRM plus 0.6 or 1.0% AN. Fifty piglets receiving the same pre-weaning diets were weaned at 28 days of age and transferred to one pen, where they continued on the pre-weaning diet until day 92. At 41 days, six piglets per treatment were sacrificed for blood and intestinal samplings. The average daily gain was at least sustained at any dose of FRM (increased at 8% FRM, 28–41 days) from 18–41 days similar to PC but unaffected by inclusion of AN. The percentage of piglets that completed the experiment was increased by FRM compared to NC, despite detection of diarrhea symptoms. FRM showed quadratic dose-response effects on colon and mid-jejunum crypts depth, and enterocyte and mid-jejunum villus heights with optimum development at 8% or 10% FRM, respectively, but this was abolished when AN was also added. In conclusion, FRM sustained piglet growth performance and intestinal development similar to ZnO with an optimum inclusion level of 8–10% of dietary DM.

The direct use of medical zinc oxide (ZnO) in feed will be abandoned after 2022 in Europe, leaving an urgent need for substitutes to prevent post-weaning disorders. This study assessed whether rapeseed meal added two brown macroalagae species ( Saccharina latissima and Ascophylum nodosum ) and fermented using lactic acid bacteria (FRS) could improve piglet performance and gut health. The weaned piglets were fed one of three different feeding regimens (n = 230 each): basal diet, 2.5% and 5% FRS from day 28 of life to day 85. The piglets fed with 2.5% FRS presented superior phenotype with alleviated intraepithelial and stromal lymphocytes infiltration in the gut, enhanced colon mucosa barrier as well as numerically improvements of final body weight. Colon microbiota composition was determined using amplicon sequencing of the V3 and V1 – V8 region of the 16S rRNA gene using Illumina Nextseq and Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencing, respectively. The two amplicon sequencing strategies showed high consistence between the detected bacteria. Both sequencing technologies showed that the FRS fed piglets had a distinctly different microbial composition relative to the basal diet. Compared with piglets fed the basal diet, Prevotella stercorea was verified by both technologies to be more abundant in the FRS piglets, and positively correlated with colon mucosa thickness and negatively correlated with blood levels of leucocytes and IgG. In conclusion, FRS supplementation improved gut health of weaner piglets, and altered their gut microbiota composition. Increasing the dietary inclusion of FRS from 2.5% to 5% did not cause further improvements.