Effect of fosfomycin, Cynara scolymus extract, deoxynivalenol and their combinations on intestinal health of weaned piglets

MARTÍNEZ, GUADALUPE; DIÉGUEZ, SUSANA N.; FERNÁNDEZ PAGGI, MARÍA B.; RICCIO, MARÍA B.; GAUDIO, DENISA S.P.; RODRÍGUEZ, EDGARDO; AMANTO, FABIÁN A.; TAPIA, MARÍA O.; SORACI, ALEJANDRO L.

Animal Nutrition

Wiley

Año: 2019 vol. 5 p. 386 - 395

2405-6545

Weaning is a challenging stage of pig farming. Animals undergo environmental, social4 and dietary changes leading to weaning stress syndrome. In order to compensate for the5 detrimental effects of weaning stress, antibiotics and natural extracts are used as feed6 additives, sometimes without fully understanding the interactions between them or even7 with low concentrations of mycotoxins that are frequently present in feed. The aim of8 this study was to evaluate the effect of fosfomycin (FOS), Cynara scolymus extract9 (CSE), deoxynivalenol (DON) and their combined administration on intestinal health of10 weaned piglets. The experiment was designed as a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with11 3 factors (FOS, CSE and DON treatments), 2 levels each (presence and absence) and 312 repeats. Weaned piglets (n = 24) were randomly divided in groups to receive the13 different treatments, namely DON administered in diet (50 μg/kg BW), FOS14 administered into the drinking water (30 mg/kg BW), CSE administered in diet (1515 mg/kg BW) and all their combinations. After 15 d, the animals were euthanized and16 gastrointestinal tract samples were immediately taken to evaluate gastrointestinal pH,17 Enterobacteriaceae to lactic acid bacteria (E:L) ratio, volatile fatty acid (VFA)18 concentrations, disaccharidase (lactase, sucrase and maltase) activity, histology19 (intestinal absorptive area [IAA] and goblet cells count) and mucus ability to adhere20 pathogenic E. coli. From our results, FOS and CSE treatments, individually or21 combined, produced a lower E:L ratio, an enhanced production of butyrate, increased22 disaccharidase activity (particularly maltase), and a greater IAA and goblet cells count23 along with an increase in pathogenic bacteria adherence to intestinal mucus.24 Deoxynivalenol did not show interactions with the other factors and its administration25 produced decreases on VFA, disaccharidase activity and goblet cells count. In conclusion, weaning piglets receiving diets containing FOS, CSE 26 or both exhibited27 evident beneficial intestinal effects compared to animals receiving diets free from these28 compounds. On the contrary, the presence of DON at sub-toxic concentrations produced29 detrimental effects on intestinal health. The knowledge of the physiological and30 pathological gut changes produced by these compounds contributes to understand their31 potential productive consequences.