The development of some digestive enzymes in the intestines of pigs reared artificially

SUMMARY A comparison was made of the development of acid and alkaline phosphatase, invertase, lactase and leucine aminopeptidase specific activities in the small intestines of two groups of neonatal pigs. The groups consisted of two litters of suckling pigs and two litters of pigs that were delivered by hysterectomy and reared in incubators on a diet based on cow's milk. In the unsuckled pigs there was retardation of the development of invertase and leucine aminopeptidase. The unsuckled animals grew slowly and were affected by diarrhoea, and it is possible that enteric disease may have affected the development of the brush border of the intestinal epithelial cells, or enzymes specifically associated with the microvilli.