Effect of supplementing varying inclusion levels of laminarin and fucoidan on growth performance, digestibility of diet components, selected faecal microbial populations and volatile fatty acid concentrations in weaned pigs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2013.04.013Get rights and content

Abstract

A 3 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of purified laminarin (LAM) and fucoidan (FUC), independently or in combination on growth performance, coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD), selected faecal microbial populations and volatile fatty acid concentrations (VFA) in weaned pigs. At weaning, 168 pigs (24 days of age, 6.8 ± 0.6 kg live weight) were assigned to one of six dietary treatments (n = 14): (1) basal diet; (2) basal diet + 240 mg/kg FUC; (3) basal diet + 150 mg/kg LAM; (4) basal diet + 150 mg/kg LAM and 240 mg/kg FUC; (5) basal + 300 mg/kg LAM; (6) basal diet + 300 mg/kg LAM and 240 mg/kg FUC. The pigs were offered the diets ad libitum for 35 days post-weaning. Pigs offered 300 mg/kg LAM supplemented diets had a higher average daily gain (ADG) throughout the entire experimental period (d 0–35) compared with pigs offered diets with 0 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg LAM supplementation (0.374 kg/d vs. 0.346 kg/d vs. 0.340 kg/d, SEM ± 0.0094; P < 0.05). There was an interaction between LAM and FUC supplementation on gain to feed (G:F) ratio (P < 0.05) during the entire experimental period. Pigs offered the 300 mg/kg LAM diet had a higher G:F ratio than pigs offered the basal diet. However, there was no effect of the 300 mg/kg LAM on overall G:F ratio when combined with FUC. There was an interaction between LAM and FUC supplementation on the CTTAD of gross energy (GE) (P < 0.05). Pigs offered the 150 mg/kg or 300 mg/kg LAM diets had an increased CTTAD of GE compared with pigs offered the basal diet. However, there was no further effect of LAM on the CTTAD of GE when combined with FUC. Pigs offered diets supplemented with FUC had an increased faecal Lactobacillus population compared with pigs offered diets without FUC supplementation (10.11 gene copy number/g vs. 9.62 gene copy number/g, SEM ± 0.173; P < 0.05). Pigs offered the 150 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg LAM supplemented diets had an improved faecal consistency from d 7–14 compared with pigs offered diets without LAM supplementation (3.14 vs. 3.00 vs. 3.49, SEM ± 0.348; P < 0.05). In summary, the inclusion of 300 mg/kg LAM showed the greatest benefit in growth performance with improvements in ADG and G:F ratio partially due to an increased CTTAD of diet components and lower faecal score.

Introduction

The weaning transition is often associated with undesirable morphological and physiological changes in the piglet's gastrointestinal environment related to a reduced voluntary feed intake, which subsequently increase susceptibility to intestinal dysfunction (Pluske et al., 1997). Traditional measures to ameliorate weaning associated intestinal dysfunction have centred on dietary manipulations post-weaning (Pierce et al., 2005). Recent investigations have focussed on the exploitation of marine algae and the identification of novel bioactive compounds containing biological properties (Reilly et al., 2008, Lynch et al., 2010). Brown seaweeds contain polysaccharides resistant to hydrolysis by human endogenous enzymes and therefore are considered as dietary fibres (Devillé et al., 2007). Laminarin (LAM) and fucoidan (FUC) are the main water-soluble polysaccharides of brown algae (Michell et al., 1996). Laminarin is composed of (1,3)-β-d-glucan with β-(1,6) linked side chains of varying distribution and length (Brown and Gordon, 2001, Rioux et al., 2007). Laminarins have shown promising antibacterial activities in pigs (Lynch et al., 2010) and immunomodulating activities in rats (Rice et al., 2005). Fucoidan represents a group of sulphated polysaccharides extracted from the cell wall of various species of brown seaweeds (Berteau and Mulloy, 2003). Fucoidans have been demonstrated to possess numerous biological properties, including antiviral properties in vitro (Damonte et al., 2004), immunomodulatory activities in rats (Cumashi et al., 2007) and antibacterial activities in vitro (Shibata et al., 2003).

Gahan et al. (2009) showed that the inclusion of a seaweed extract containing LAM and FUC could replace the need for a high concentration of dietary lactose without adversely affecting pig performance in antibiotic-free diets. Recently, O’Doherty et al. (2010) demonstrated that the inclusion of a seaweed extract containin LAM and FUC (laminarin 112 g/kg, fucoidan 89 g/kg and ash 799 g/kg) increased average daily gain (ADG) and gain to feed (G:F) ratio of pigs post-weaning mainly through increasing nutrient digestibility and decreasing faecal Escherichia coli. Furthermore, McDonnell et al. (2010) showed that the inclusion of LAM in weaned pig diets improved feed efficiency and growth performance. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of varying dietary inclusion levels of purified LAM and FUC, independently or in combination on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, selected faecal microbial populations and volatile fatty acid concentrations in weaned pigs and to establish the optimum ratio of LAM and FUC required to promote growth performance. It is hypothesised that the inclusion of both LAM and FUC will improve pig performance post-weaning through modifying selected microbial populations and increased nutrient digestibility in the gastrointestinal tract.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

All procedures described in this experiment were conducted under experimental licence from the Irish Department of Health in accordance with the cruelty to Animals Act 1876 and the European Communities (Amendments of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1976) Regulations.

Growth performance

The effects of dietary LAM and FUC on ADG, average daily feed intake (ADFI) and G:F ratios are shown in Table 3. Pigs offered the 300 mg/kg LAM supplemented diets had a higher ADG during the entire experimental period (d 0–35) compared with pigs offered diets with 0 mg/kg and 150 mg/kg LAM supplementation (0.374 kg/d vs. 0.346 kg/d vs. 0.340 kg/d, SEM ± 0.0094; P < 0.05).

There was no effect of LAM or FUC inclusion on ADFI (P > 0.05) throughout the duration of the experiment. There was an interaction

Discussion

Recent studies have shown the benefits of using seaweed extracts containing both LAM and FUC in weaner pig diets on growth performance and feed efficiency (Gahan et al., 2009, O’Doherty et al., 2010). The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of varying dietary inclusion levels of purified LAM and FUC, independently or in combination on growth performance, the CTTAD of diet components, selected faecal microbial populations and VFA concentrations in weaned pigs. The diets used in

Conclusion

In summary, the inclusion of 300 mg/kg LAM showed the greatest benefit in growth performance with improvements in ADG and G:F ratio partially due to an increased CTTAD of diet components and lower faecal score. Despite the increase in the CTTAD of diet components and lower faecal score with the inclusion of 150 mg/kg LAM, there was no positive effect of the 150 mg/kg LAM on pig growth performance. The supplementation of FUC in the diet improved the G:F ratio of the weaned pigs from d 7 to 21,

Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by the Innovation Partnership Programme (Enterprise Ireland) and BioAtlantis Ltd, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland.

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