PEGASE, Institut Agro, INRAE, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France.
IDENA, 44880 Sautron, France.
J Anim Sci. 2023 Jan 3;101. doi: 10.1093/jas/skad282.
Weaning is a critical period for pigs. Some plant extracts showing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or antibacterial properties, provided to piglets and/or their dam, may improve piglets' robustness at weaning, thus reducing the need for antobiotics. This study investigated the effects of a maternal and/or a direct supplementation of piglets with a combination of plant extracts on sow and piglet performance and their metabolic, immune, inflammatory, and oxidative status during lactation and around weaning. Sixty-four sows were assigned to the control or treated group. Treated sows were supplemented with a powdered plant extracts supplement daily top-dressed on feed from day of gestation (DG) 106 to day of lactation (DL) 28 and a liquid solution top-dressed on feed on DG109. Within each sow group, litters were divided into two groups: a control piglet group and a treated piglet group. A single dose of a liquid solution was orally given to piglets in the treated piglet group. Piglets were weaned on DL28. Blood samples were collected from sows on DG94, DG112, and DL26 and from 2 piglets per litter on DL3, DL14, DL25, and 5 d postweaning to analyze indicators of metabolic, immune, inflammatory, and oxidative status. Colostrum and milk samples were collected at farrowing, DL6, and 26. Maternal supplementation had no effect on sow metabolic, immune, inflammatory, and oxidative status except for fewer lymphocytes on DG112 (P < 0.05) and a lower plasma concentration of non-esterified fatty acids on DL26 (P < 0.05). Maternal supplementation tended to decrease dry matter and gross energy (P < 0.10) and reduced fat and haptoglobin concentrations (P < 0.01) in milk on DL26. Maternal supplementation had no effect on piglets' growth performance and blood indicators during lactation and around weaning. On DL25, the direct supplementation of piglets decreased their neutrophils proportion (P < 0.05), increased the expression of genes encoding pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in whole blood culture in response to lipopolysaccharide (P < 0.05) and tended to decrease the oxidative stress index (P = 0.06). After weaning, these beneficial effects were no longer observed but the supplementation improved piglets' growth performance during the postweaning period (P < 0.05). Plant extract supplementation could thus modify the composition of mammary secretions and improve postweaning performance of piglets potentially related to the modification of their immune and oxidative status before weaning.
断奶是猪的一个关键时期。一些具有抗氧化、抗炎或抗菌特性的植物提取物，如果提供给仔猪及其母猪，可能会提高仔猪在断奶时的健壮程度，从而减少抗生素的使用。本研究调查了母猪和/或仔猪直接补充植物提取物混合物对母猪和仔猪性能及其代谢、免疫、炎症和氧化状态的影响，这些影响发生在哺乳期和断奶期。64 头母猪被分配到对照组或处理组。处理组母猪从妊娠第 106 天（DG）到哺乳期第 28 天（DL）每天在饲料上补充粉状植物提取物补充剂，并在妊娠第 109 天在饲料上补充液体溶液。在每个母猪组中，将仔猪分为两组：对照组仔猪和处理组仔猪。处理组仔猪口服给予单次剂量的液体溶液。仔猪在 DL28 断奶。在 DG94、DG112 和 DL26 从母猪身上采集血液样本，在 DL3、DL14、DL25 和断奶后 5 天从每窝 2 头仔猪身上采集血液样本，以分析代谢、免疫、炎症和氧化状态的指标。在分娩时、DL6 和 26 时采集初乳和牛奶样本。除了 DG112 时淋巴细胞减少（P < 0.05）和 DL26 时非酯化脂肪酸的血浆浓度降低（P < 0.05）外，母体补充对母猪的代谢、免疫、炎症和氧化状态没有影响。母体补充会降低干物质和总能（P < 0.10），并降低 DL26 时牛奶中的脂肪和触珠蛋白浓度（P < 0.01）。母体补充对哺乳期和断奶期仔猪的生长性能和血液指标没有影响。在 DL25 时，仔猪的直接补充降低了其中性粒细胞比例（P < 0.05），增加了全血培养中对脂多糖反应时促炎和抗炎细胞因子基因的表达（P < 0.05），并倾向于降低氧化应激指数（P = 0.06）。断奶后，这些有益效果不再观察到，但补充剂改善了断奶后仔猪的生长性能（P < 0.05）。因此，植物提取物的补充可以改变乳腺分泌物的组成，并提高仔猪的断奶后性能，这可能与断奶前免疫和氧化状态的改变有关。
