Abstract Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of a novel proprietary blend of polyphenol extracts (BOREOX® BX050; Hanley International, LLC) on growth performance and/or vitamin E status in nursery pigs with or without a mycotoxin challenge. A total of 360 (Exp. 1) and 720 (Exp. 2) nursery pigs (∼21 d of age) housed 10 pigs per pen were used in the two experiments according to a randomized complete block design resulting in a total of 18 replicates for each experiment. In Exp. 1, pigs (initial BW = 5.78 ± 0.38 kg) were fed 1 of 2 diets across 3 feeding phases for a total of 42 d. Dietary treatments consisted of a commercial corn-soybean meal-based diet with nutrients that met or exceeded NRC (2012) requirement estimate (Control) or the Control diet supplemented with 560 mg/kg of BX050 (BOREOX), which provides the expected equivalency of 280 IU/kg of vitamin E (DL-α-tocopheryl acetate). On d 7 and 40, blood was collected to determine serum α-tocopherol concentration. In Exp. 2, pigs (initial BW = 6.00 ± 0.03 kg) were assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments. Dietary treatments consisted of a basal diet meeting or exceeding NRC (2012) nutrient requirements and contaminated with ∼5 mg/kg of deoxynivalenol (DON) were supplemented with either 0, 132, 198, or 265 mg/kg of BX050 (an expected equivalency of 0, 66, 99, or 132.5 IU/kg of vitamin E, respectively) and fed from d 7-21 (phase 2), while a common diet absent of DON contamination was fed from d 0-7 (phase 1). All data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX of SAS with the pen serving as the experimental unit. In Exp. 1, d 40 serum α-tocopherol of pigs fed BOREOX was 13.4 % greater (P = 0.05) compared to the Control. Although not significant, pigs fed BOREOX had a 4.9 and 3.8 % increase in overall ADG and ADFI (P = 0.14), ultimately leading to a 3.4 % heavier final BW (P = 0.13) compared to the Control. In Exp. 2, increasing dietary BOREOX supplementation to diets contaminated with DON linearly increased phase 2 ADG (P 0.01), ADFI (P = 0.03), Gain:Feed (P 0.01), and d 21 BW (P 0.01). In conclusion, supplementing commercial nursery diets with BOREOX resulted in marginal improvements in overall growth performance of nursery pigs fed with or without a mycotoxin challenge. The large improvement in serum α-tocopherol observed with feeding BOREOX in Exp. 1 may demonstrate BOREOX’s ability to preserve vitamin E status and enhance systemic antioxidant capacity in nursery pigs.
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.