The Impact of Maternal and Piglet Low Protein Diet and Their Interaction on the Porcine Liver Transcriptome around the Time of Weaning.

peer reviewedMaternal diet during early gestation affects offspring phenotype, but it is unclear whether maternal diet during late gestation influences piglet metabolism. We evaluated the impact of two dietary protein levels in sow late gestation diet and piglet nursery diet on piglet metabolism. Diets met or exceeded the crude protein and amino acid requirements. Sows received either 12% (Lower, L) or 17% (Higher, H) crude protein (CP) during the last five weeks of gestation, and piglets received 16.5% (L) or 21% (H) CP from weaning at age 3.5 weeks. This resulted in a 2 × 2 factorial design with four sow/piglet diet treatment groups: HH and LL (match), HL and LH (mismatch). Piglet hepatic tissues were sampled and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were determined by RNA sequencing. At age 4.5 weeks, 25 genes were downregulated and 22 genes were upregulated in the mismatch compared to match groups. Several genes involved in catabolic pathways were upregulated in the mismatch compared to match groups, as were genes involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation. The results show a distinct interaction effect between maternal and nursery diets, implying that sow late gestation diet could be used to optimize piglet metabolism

Isoquinoline Alkaloids in Sows’ Diet Reduce Body Weight Loss during Lactation and Increase IgG in Colostrum

peer reviewe

Agro-industrial feed ingredients, a novel approach to enhance intestinal health in weaned piglets: from in vitro to in vivo perspectives

Weaning is a critical transition period in pig production with major dietary, behavioural and environmental challenges leading to tremendous physiological, immunological and microbiological changes in the piglet’s intestines. This multifactorial process predisposes the piglets to subsequent intestinal disturbances and infections, resulting in poor performance and diarrhoea. To tackle the current problematic expansion of antibiotic resistance, nutritional management is yet another promising strategy to alleviate intestinal disorders around weaning. By-products from the agro-industrial sector and, to a lesser extent, whole cereals and roots, are major sources of dietary fibres suitable for livestock feeding. These native sources of ingredients could represent potential prebiotic candidates due to the heterogeneous dietary fibre components embedded in their cell wall matrix. These feed ingredients, regarded as environmental-friendly, socially accepted and more economic and sustainable than antimicrobials and isolated fibre fractions, are therefore of upmost interest. However, among potential dietary strategies, mainly purified fibre fractions have been accepted and promoted, while the prebiotic capacities of several cereals, roots and corresponding by-products remain to be investigated. We therefore hypothesised that the prebiotic effects of these feed ingredients could reach or overcome the ones of isolated fibre fractions. For this purpose, 36 fibre-rich feed ingredients were first tested in a three-step in vitro model of the piglet’s gastro-intestinal tract for their prebiotic potential (objective 1), measuring the gas kinetics, short-chain fatty acid and microbiota profiles in the fermentation broth as indicators of prebiotic activity. Several feed ingredients such as chicory pulp, citrus and orange by-products, rye bran and soybean hulls, with complex structural composition varying in soluble and insoluble dietary fibres and distinct constituent sugars, positively modulated health-related microbiota communities in the fermentation broths, reaching or overcoming the prebiotic effect of their corresponding purified fraction and/or inulin. Purified fractions were ranked as highly fermentable, with inulin displaying the most interesting prebiotic profile as butyrogenic ingredient. Subsequently, the six most promising ingredients were tested via a functional in vitro fermentation – cell culture assay (objective 2) combining the in vitro batch fermentation model with cultured intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-J2), for their barrier-enhancing and immunomodulatory effects. Inulin and its fermentation metabolites promoted the intestinal barrier function via up-regulated expressions of tight and adherens junction genes. Chicory pulp fermentation supernatant enhanced the intestinal barrier integrity and seemed to induce anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic regulations in comparison to inulin, while the fermentation supernatants of chicory root, citrus pulp, rye bran and soybean hulls only showed minor immunomodulatory effects. These in vitro assays led to preliminary conclusions that allowed the selection of the most promising ingredients for the third objective of the thesis, i.e. evaluating the inclusion of citrus pulp (0.2 % and 2 %) and inulin (0.2 %) in the feed of newly weaned piglets in vivo. The aim was to provide insights into their capacities to modulate intestinal fermentation, ecology, morphology, inflammation and permeability, with the purpose of improving gut health at weaning, and hence, reducing the incidence of infections. We observed that citrus pulp improved gut morphology and promoted colonic fermentation at weaning without depressing growth performance or impairing the inflammatory response and the intestinal barrier function. Colonic health-associated microbiota communities were notably enhanced in both the early and late post-weaning stages under citrus pulp supplementation at 2 %. A decline in colonic branched-chain fatty acids, concomitant with greater acetate proportions, was also observed and could account for a possible reduction of proteolytic fermentation in newly weaned piglets following citrus pulp inclusion at 2 %. Moreover, greater villus height to crypt depth ratios were observed following citrus pulp (0.2 % and 2 %) and inulin supplementations, which might suggest the capacity of the ingredients to cope with epithelial damage during the weaning transition. Citrus pulp could therefore be considered as a valuable nutritional strategy for future inclusion in the weaner diet. In summary, this thesis improved our understanding of dietary fibre management around weaning using whole cereals, roots and by-products from the agro-industrial sector. The heterogeneous sources of endogenous dietary carbohydrates present in these feed ingredients, causing a more gradual degradation, could effectively maintain fermentation throughout the entire hindgut. Several types of feed ingredients may therefore be promising alternatives to antimicrobials and pure fibre fractions, to reduce the prevalence of post-weaning diarrhoea. Nevertheless, a challenge trial could better recreate the conditions encountered in commercial production at weaning and might provide a clearer picture of the preventive or curative effects of these feed ingredients against pathogen infection at weaning. Alternatively, using the functional fermentation – cell culture model, other feed ingredients and their fermentation metabolites may be tested for their bioactive properties for future inclusion in young mammalian diets

Attenuating Effect of Zinc and Vitamin E on the Intestinal Oxidative Stress Induced by Silver Nanoparticles in Broiler Chickens.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been increasingly used as antimicrobial and disinfectant. However, intestinal model studies have shown that AgNPs induce oxidative stress. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effects of dietary supplemental zinc (Zn) and vitamin E (VE; alpha-tocopherol acetate) on attenuating AgNP-induced intestinal oxidative stress in broiler chickens. The chickens were divided into two groups as follows: (1) control group fed with a corn-soybean meal basal diet and (2) nano group, received drinking water containing 1000 mg/kg AgNPs. All the nano-exposed birds were divided into six dietary treatment groups, namely, the basal diets supplemented with (1) 60 mg/kg Zn as ZnSO4, (2) 120 mg/kg Zn, (3) 100 mg/kg VE, (4) 200 mg/kg VE, (5) 60 mg/kg Zn and 100 mg/kg VE, and (6) 120 mg/kg Zn and 200 mg/kg VE. Results showed that the AgNPs significantly reduced the body weights of the broilers after 42 days of oral administration of AgNPs (P < 0.05), and this effect was not alleviated by any of the dietary treatments. The activity of superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD) increased in all the AgNP-treated birds (P < 0.05); however, CuZn-SOD did not increase in birds fed with basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg VE. In this treatment, the VE exerted an antioxidant effect to prevent the activation of the CuZn-SOD enzyme. Furthermore, supplementing Zn increased the activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase in the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05), which were accompanied with increased malondialdehyde levels (P < 0.05) in the broilers. AgNP exposure resulted in a significant messenger RNA (mRNA) upregulation of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and TLR2-1 in the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05). However, supplemental ZnVE did not reduce TLRs' mRNA expression, except for the diminished TLR2-1 mRNA levels in birds fed with basal diet supplemented with 120 mg/kg Zn and 200 mg/kg VE. We concluded that although dietary Zn and VE supplementation did not attenuate growth depression effect of AgNP, it however attenuates intestinal oxidative stress in AgNP-treated broiler chickens

Chicory root and inulin stimulate butyrate-producing bacterial communities in an in vitro model of the piglet's gastro-intestinal tract

Nutritional management is a promising strategy to alleviate intestinal disorders around weaning in pig production. By-products from the agro-industrial sector are major sources of dietary fibres suitable for livestock feeding and could represent potential prebiotic candidates to modulate beneficial microbiota populations and especially butyrate-producing bacteria. In the present study, chicory root and pulp, citrus pulp, rye bran and soybean hulls were tested in an in vitro batch fermentation model for their microbiota-modulating capacities in comparison to inulin, considered as positive prebiotic control. The microbiota composition in the broths after 6, 12 and 24 h of fermentation was analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. After 24 h, the fermentation of chicory root led to a rise in Firmicutes relative abundance, similar to inulin. Enriched Eubacterium spp. and Ruminococcus spp. levels were found for chicory root and inulin at each of the three time-points in comparison to the other ingredients. These two genera were positively correlated to butyrate production after 12 and 24 h. The tested by-products showed increased levels of Bacteroidetes after 6 h compared to inulin. At each time-point, higher relative proportions of Bacteroides spp. were found with the by-products in comparison to inulin. We can therefore suppose that inulin and chicory root supplementations promoted the Firmicutes phylum by stimulating butyrate-producing bacteria in vitro. Chicory root and inulin could therefore be considered as prebiotic ingredients to modulate butyrate production in vivo, with beneficial effects on intestinal health. © 202