Post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) represents the most important threat for the pig industry all over the world with a morbidity over 50% among weaned piglets during outbreaks of the disease. Given the public health concerns about the spread of multi-resistant bacteria due to the use of antibiotics in livestock, it is necessary to develop alternative strategies to restore microbial balance and control post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets. To date, the most promising alternative strategies are mainly based on the use of substances that act on bacteria indirectly by stimulating the immune system, or by improving gut health. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of an alternative treatment compared to antibiotics on supporting the health of the gut microbiota of pre-weaning piglets. Twenty-four litters were randomly divided into the following 3 treatment groups: (i) basal diet without any preventive treatments; (ii) basal diet supplemented with a mixture of garlic and oregano essential oil (500 g/ton of feed) and without any preventive treatments; (iii) basal diet not supplemented but using preventive antibiotics (cefquinome 2 mg/kg BW for 5 days while castration and tattoing, tildipirosin 4 mg/kg at weaning, amoxicillin 20 mg/kg BW per os for 5 days at weaning) and antiparasitic (toltrazuril 20mg/kg BW at birth) treatments. For metabarcoding analysis, rectal swab samples were individually collected at four timepoints (from birth to weaning) and the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of bacterial 16S gene was sequenced in one MiSeq (Illumina) run. Results revealed that the gut microbiota of pre-weaning piglets is dominated by the phyla Firmicutes (51%), Bacteroidetes (25%) and Proteobacteria (16%), which together make up for 92% of all microbes. The gut microbiota clearly changed over time: from the analysis of variance, all taxa showed significantly different relative abundances across timepoints, as well as alpha diversity indexes; based on the matrix of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities, samples clustered separately per timepoint. On the other hand, no clear differences among treatments were observed in terms of taxa abundances or alpha- and beta-diversity indexes. These preliminary results suggest that the tested treatments do not seem to exert major effects on general properties of pre-weaning piglets' gut microbiota, however modifications of specific taxa may occur.
Gut microbiome response to dietary prevention regimes in pre-weaning piglets
Paola Cremonesi;Filippo Biscarini;
2019
Abstract
Post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) represents the most important threat for the pig industry all over the world with a morbidity over 50% among weaned piglets during outbreaks of the disease. Given the public health concerns about the spread of multi-resistant bacteria due to the use of antibiotics in livestock, it is necessary to develop alternative strategies to restore microbial balance and control post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets. To date, the most promising alternative strategies are mainly based on the use of substances that act on bacteria indirectly by stimulating the immune system, or by improving gut health. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of an alternative treatment compared to antibiotics on supporting the health of the gut microbiota of pre-weaning piglets. Twenty-four litters were randomly divided into the following 3 treatment groups: (i) basal diet without any preventive treatments; (ii) basal diet supplemented with a mixture of garlic and oregano essential oil (500 g/ton of feed) and without any preventive treatments; (iii) basal diet not supplemented but using preventive antibiotics (cefquinome 2 mg/kg BW for 5 days while castration and tattoing, tildipirosin 4 mg/kg at weaning, amoxicillin 20 mg/kg BW per os for 5 days at weaning) and antiparasitic (toltrazuril 20mg/kg BW at birth) treatments. For metabarcoding analysis, rectal swab samples were individually collected at four timepoints (from birth to weaning) and the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of bacterial 16S gene was sequenced in one MiSeq (Illumina) run. Results revealed that the gut microbiota of pre-weaning piglets is dominated by the phyla Firmicutes (51%), Bacteroidetes (25%) and Proteobacteria (16%), which together make up for 92% of all microbes. The gut microbiota clearly changed over time: from the analysis of variance, all taxa showed significantly different relative abundances across timepoints, as well as alpha diversity indexes; based on the matrix of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities, samples clustered separately per timepoint. On the other hand, no clear differences among treatments were observed in terms of taxa abundances or alpha- and beta-diversity indexes. These preliminary results suggest that the tested treatments do not seem to exert major effects on general properties of pre-weaning piglets' gut microbiota, however modifications of specific taxa may occur.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
