Evaluation of a Proprietary Blend of Prebiotics, Essential Oils and Acidifier on Intestinal Health of Nursery Pigs Challenged with F18+ E coli.

Abstract The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that dietary supplementation of a proprietary blend (Biolex® NG, BioMatrix, Inc., Princeton, MN) of prebiotics (dried chicory root/inulin and yeast extract), essential oils, and acidifier (POA) could mitigate the negative impacts of F18+ E. coli on intestinal health and growth performance of nursery pigs. Thirty-six nursery pigs (6.8 ± 0.3 kg) weaned at 21 d of age were assigned to 3 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design with initial body weight and sex as blocks. Pigs were fed for 28 d in 3 phases (0-10, 10-22, and 22-28 d, respectively). Dietary treatments were NC (basal diet, no challenge), PC (basal diet, challenged with F18+ E. coli), and POA (basal diet supplemented with POA at 0.1%, challenged with F18+ E. coli). On d 7 and 8, pigs in PC and POA were orally inoculated with F18+ E. coli (1.1 × 1010 CFU/pig). On d 28, pigs were euthanized to collect jejunal tissue and mucosa. Data were analyzed using preplanned contrasts (NC vs PC and PC vs POA) in Proc MIXED of SAS. The PC tended to increase (P = 0.076) the abundance of Helicobacter equorum in the jejunal mucosa compared with NC. The POA tended to increase (P = 0.081) the abundance of Bifidobacterium thermacidophilum and tended to reduce (P = 0.079) Helicobacter equorum compared with PC. The PC increased (P 0.05) the expression of interferon-γ in the jejunum compared with NC, whereas the POA decreased (P 0.05) it compared with PC. The PC tended to reduce (P = 0.051) the expression of occludin in the jejunum compared with NC, whereas the POA increased (P 0.05) occludin compared with PC. The PC tended to increase interleukin-6 (P = 0.064) and interleukin-8 (P = 0.080) and increased (P 0.05) protein carbonyl levels compared with the NC, whereas the POA reduced (P 0.05) tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and protein carbonyl compared with PC. The PC reduced (P 0.05) jejunal villus height, whereas the POA increased (P 0.05) it compared with PC. The PC reduced (P 0.05) overall average daily gain and gain-to-feed ratio compared with NC. The POA tended to reduce (P = 0.059) overall average daily feed intake compared with PC without compromising average daily gain or gain-to-feed ratio, which might reflect that growth performance often manifests later, after improvements in intestinal health. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with POA has the potential to reduce the negative impacts of F18+ E. coli challenge by reducing inflammation and oxidative damage, and enhancing intestinal integrity and morphology, whereas weight and feed efficiency remained unaffected.