Publikationsdatenbank

Impact of probiotics on gut health and immune status in pigs (2007)

Art

Vortrag

Autor

Taras, David

Kongress

DSM European Swine Tour

Wildeshausen; Rennes; Landshut; Bologna; London, 08. – 12.10.2007

Quelle

Sprache

Englisch

Kontakt

Institut für Tierernährung

Königin-Luise-Str. 49
14195 Berlin
+49 30 838 52256
tierernaehrung@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Objectives: The EU decision to ban the use of antibiotic feed additives accelerated probiotic application in animal nutrition. Nevertheless, a sound scientific basis for the evaluation of conditions under which probiotics might be beneficial is largely missing. Therefore, we conducted a broad interdisciplinary approach (covering animal performance, microbiology, immunology, mucosal histology and transport kinetics) to investigate the modes of action of probiotics in pigs as well as factors influencing their effect and their contribution to animal health. Here we report the impact of four application variants on intestinal distribution and concentration of the probiotic, on the composition of the gut microbiota, on immunmodulation, on diarrhea incidence and on piglet performance.

Methods: Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 was initially chosen as model organism. Feed for sows during gestation/lactation and for piglets pre-/postweaning was supplemented with this probiotics. Furthermore, the probiotic was administered to piglets from birth on or just postweaning to evaluate in litters of untreated sows the effect of different starting points of E. faecium NCIMB 10415 initiations. To assess piglet performance body weight and feed intake were measured. Fecal consistency of weaned piglets was recorded daily. Luminal and tissue samples from stomach, jejunum, ileum and colon, respectively, were taken from nursed and weaned piglets of each group at the age of 14, 28, 35 and 56 days. Probiotic concentration in digesta and feces were monitored using colony hybridization with a strain specific probe. Total nucleic acids were extracted from digesta and feces of piglets as well as from sow feces followed by eubacterial PCR-DGGE and subsequent analysis of various criteria of microbial ecological. Furthermore, serogroups of intestinal E. coli were analyzed in healthy piglets as well as virulence genes of E. coli in diarrhea samples studied. In addition, lymphocytes in the small intestinal epithelium and in Payer?s patches were characterized and counted.

Results: If fed to sows and piglets the probiotic strain was detected immediately after the start of the supplementation in feces of sows and piglets. Vertical transfer with sow feces to piglets could be demonstrated before suckling piglets had access to supplemented diets. The probiotic was recovered from all intestinal segments of piglets. The concentration of the E. faecium probiotic was not considerably increased after intake of supplemented feed by piglets. The dominant autochthonous microbiota of young piglets as revealed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was more similar within than between treatment groups (control vs. probiotic). Frequency of potentially pathogenic E. coli serogroups was reduced in probiotic supplemented groups. The incidence of postweaning diarrhea was reduced in all trials. The relative magnitude of this effect was largely independent of dietary probiotic concentration or starting time of supplementation.

Conclusions: The results indicate that probiotics may be a contribution to healthy piglet rearing. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the effect seems to be strain dependent and influenced by so far undetermined animal-specific characteristics as well as exogenous farm- and time-specific factors.