Effects of Microencapsulated Probiotics on Performance, Organ Development, Diarrhoea Incidences, Blood Parameters, Intestinal Histomorphology and Microflora in Weaning Piglets

Nicoleta Aurelia Lefter, Mihaela Hăbeanu, Anca Gheorghe (), Mihaela Dumitru (), Claudiu Gal and Petru Alexandru Vlaicu
Additional contact information
Nicoleta Aurelia Lefter: Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology, National Research Development Institute for Biology and Animal Nutrition, 077015 Balotesti, Romania
Mihaela Hăbeanu: Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology, National Research Development Institute for Biology and Animal Nutrition, 077015 Balotesti, Romania
Anca Gheorghe: Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology, National Research Development Institute for Biology and Animal Nutrition, 077015 Balotesti, Romania
Mihaela Dumitru: Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology, National Research Development Institute for Biology and Animal Nutrition, 077015 Balotesti, Romania
Claudiu Gal: Synevovet Laboratory, 077040 Chiajna, Romania
Petru Alexandru Vlaicu: Laboratory of Feed and Food Quality, National Research Development Institute for Biology and Animal Nutrition, 077015 Balotesti, Romania

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: The study aimed to assess the effects of the dietary supplementation of microencapsulated L. acidophilus and L. plantarum and their combination on the growth performance, organ development, diarrhoea incidences, blood profiles, intestinal histomorphology and microflora in weaned piglets. For that, 160 piglets with an average body weight (BW) of 8.52 ± 0.15 kg were divided into four groups (40 piglets/group) and allotted to one of the four dietary treatments as follows: a basal diet (C diet) or a basal diet containing 1 × 10 8 CFU/g of L. acidophilus (LA diet), or a diet containing 3 × 10 8 CFU/g of L. plantarum (LP diet) and a diet with the combination of both bacterial strains (LA + LP diet) for 21 days. On day 14, probiotics significantly increased ADFI, while FCR was higher in the LA and LP groups than the C and LA + LP groups. No effects ( p > 0.05) on visceral organs weight, intestinal pH and biochemical parameters among treatments were noticed. Treatments significantly lowered diarrhoea incidence compared to control. Villus width was greater ( p < 0.05) in all small intestinal segments in piglets fed probiotics. In the jejunum and ileum villus length, crypt length, and total villi length were higher ( p < 0.05), particularly in the LA + LP group. The probiotics, particularly the LA + LP group, modulated the cecal, jejunum and ileum microbial community structure and increased ( p < 0.05) the amount of Lactobacillus spp. while decreasing the populations of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus . Our results indicated that dietary supplementation of microencapsulated probiotics, particularly the combination of L. plantarum and L acidophilus strains, maintained growth performance, lowered diarrhoea incidence and beneficially altered the intestinal architecture and microbial populations of weaned piglets.

Keywords: L. acidophilus; L. plantarum; microencapsulated probiotics; weaning piglets; performance; microflora; piglets’ health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/39/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/39/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2022:i:1:p:39-:d:1012313

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().