Dietary prebiotic combination improves immunological and hematological parameters in weaned pigs

Abstract

As antimicrobial resistance is a global public health problem and as known the use of prebiotics on animal nutrition have antimicrobial effects, we hypothesized the use of prebiotic additives can be an alternative to in-feed antibiotics for piglets to control sanitary challenge. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the inclusion of prebiotics mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS), β-glucan, fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) to replace antibiotics as growth promoters, on immunological and hematological parameters of 21d-old weaned pigs challenged with intramuscular injection of 30 μg kg⁻¹ body weight of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Forty weaned piglets (7.2 kg) fed: CON = basal diet (BD) plus 120 ppm of halquinol; Mβ = BD plus a blend of MOS and β-glucan; F₉G₁ = BD plus a blend of MOS and β-glucan and a blend of FOS/GOS (ratio 9:1); F₇G3 = BD plus a blend of MOS and β-glucan and a blend of FOS/GOS (ratio 7:3); F₅G₅ = BD plus a blend of MOS and β-glucan and a blend of FOS/GOS (ratio 5:5). After LPS challenge, the animals fed F₉G₁ had higher hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and the same nitric oxide (NO) serum concentration than CON. Animals fed Mβ and F₉G₁ showed similar serum C-reactive protein (CP) concentration than CON and serum cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) concentration were higher in animals fed F₉G₁ or F₅G₅ than CON. In general, we concluded that treatment F₉G₁, is better for immune response during immunological challenge, because more effective immunological variables were affected (H₂O₂, NO, CP and TNF-α).