Table 1 – Effects of probiotic supplementation to supplementary milk for sucking piglets.
Weeks, n
Litters born, n Live born pigs, n
Litters born/week Alive born/week, n
Mortality total, n/week
Before probiotic With probiotic Sum 19
13 595 9,502 31
500 68
2.6 62 408 6,792 31 522 57**
Mortality due to E. coli diarrhoea, n/week 12 2*** Mortality total, % of alive born same week 14.5 11.2* Mortality due to E. coli diarrhea,
% of alive born same week Mortality due to E. coli, % of total mortality 17.5 Treatments/week, n1
Piglet weaning weight, kg2 Artist’s impression of E. coli bacteria.
figures. Five pigs (31%) died in the control group; four pigs (25%) died in the probiotic strain A supplemented group; one piglet (6%) died in the probiotic strain B group and no piglets died in the colistin group. The results further stressed the different features that differ- ent probiotics strains have. Not all can be used for control of post-weaning diarrhoea caused by E. coli F4.
Challenge study in the United States Another challenge study was carried out at University of Cali- fornia, Davis, United States, using the same probiotic strain B, but this time the challenge was the ETEC E. coli F18. Piglets went on trial post-weaning (about 6.7kg) for 18 days with in- oculation on day 7. The trial was initiated with 12 piglets per treatment group with treatments being control (no chal- lenge), challenged with F18 and challenged + probiotic B. On days 5 and 11 post-inoculation, two piglets from each of the three treatment groups were selected for sampling of jeju- num tissue to be used for evaluation of trans- and paracellular permeability. The F18-challenged piglets had a significant increase in per- meability compared to control. However, when piglets were both challenged with F18 and supplemented with the probi- otic strain B, the trans- and paracellular permeability was re- stored to the level of the control piglets. This indicates that supplementation of the probiotic strain had supported the regeneration of the tight junctions to such a degree that the adverse effect of the ETEC F18 had been overcome already at day 5 post-inoculation (Figure 1).
Re-establishment of gut barrier function The two challenge studies show that supplementation of the probiotic strain B supports fast re-establishment of normal gut barrier function after an ETEC challenge in weaned piglets. As the conditions for piglets are different when kept under
research settings and when kept in commercial farm condi- tions, probiotic strain B was incorporated into a product that was used in a farm test over 32 weeks, where the data from the first 19 weeks were regarded as control data (Table 1). In the following 13 weeks (test period), the probiotic was sup- plemented to suckling piglets through supplementary milk. The sanitary conditions on the farm were considered to be normal and the farm had a pre-weaning mortality rate of about 14%, which was regarded as close to the average for the region at the time of the test. However, the farm was known to harbour the ETEC E. coli F18 and this ETEC was known to be the main cause for pre-weaning diarrhoea. There were 1,003 farrowings in the test period, leading to 16,294 live-born piglets. There were 31 litters/week and an average of 509 live-born piglets/week. The probiotic supple- mentation was found to reduce pre-weaning mortality by 3.3%, from 14.5% to 11.2%. The mortality related to E. coli di- arrhoea went from 2.6% to 0.4% with probiotic supplementa- tion. E. coli was the reason for 17.5% of all mortality before probiotic supplementation but only the reason for 3.5% of the mortality with probiotic supplementation.
Reduced mortality, fewer antibiotics The obtained reduction in the severity of the ETEC E. coli F18-related diarrhoea led not only to reduced mortality, but also to a reduction in antibiotic treatments from an average of 2.0/litter before probiotic supplementation to an average of 1.1/litter with probiotic supplementation. That correspond- ed to a 43% reduction in antibiotic treatments of suckling piglets. Finally, the weaning weight of piglets was increased from 7.1kg to 7.8kg when supplementing with probiotics. The results show that when probiotic strains are carefully se- lected in a controlled research process, it is possible to devel- op probiotic products that can counteract the adverse effects of enteric pathogens.
▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 10, 2020 33 7.1 0.4***
3.5*** 35** 7.8**
32 1003
16,294 Mean 31
509 63 8
13.1 1.7
11.8 43
7.5
P-value n/a n/a n/a
0.98 0.62
0.008
<0.0001 0.05
<0.0001
<0.0001 0.005 0.003
1: only six weeks before probiotic supplementation; 2: only nine weeks before probiotic supplementation.
PHOTO: CHR. HANSEN/SHUTTERSTOCK
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