ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2005, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (9): 893-899.doi:

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Effects of Epidermal Growth Factor, Glutamine and pGRF Gene Plasmid on the Performance, Immune Function and Level of Growth Related Hormones of Early Weaned Piglets

FAN Zhi-yong;WANG Kang-ning;ZHOU Ding-gang   

  1. 1.College of Animal science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410028, China;2.Institute of Animal Nutrition,Sichuan Agricultural University,Yaan 625014, China
  • Received:1900-01-01 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2005-09-25 Published:2005-09-25

Abstract: One growth trial was conducted to investigate the effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF), glutamine(Gln) and porcine growth release factor gene plasmid (pGRF gene plasmid) on the performance, immune function and the level of growth related hormone of early weaned piglets. In this experiment fortytwo piglets (Landrace×Large White×Taihu, initial weight#4.51 kg),weaned at 28 days, were picked out from five litters and allotted randomly to seven equivalent groups according to a one factorial design. The EGF, Gln and pGRF gene plasmid were administrated to all piglets, injected or added to the diets directly, in EGF, Gln, pGRF gene plasmid, EGF+Gln, EGF+pGRF gene plasmid and EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid treatments respectively. Growth, food consumption, ileal apparent digestibility of protein, index of hair color, diarrhea and contents of immune globulin G (IgG) as well as the growth hormone and glucocorticoid were measured. The simultaneous administration of EGF, Gln and pGRF gene plasmid (EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid) exerted much better effects than that of the separate use of any of them. This is also true for the combined administration (EGF+Gln and EGF+pGRF gene plasmid). As for the EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid group, the final weight, ADG, ileal apparent digestibility of protein and index of hair color were increased by 48.02% (P<0.01) and 1.68 times (P<0.01), 1.13 times (P<0.01) and 14.03% (P<0.05) respectively while the food consumption were decreased by 50.75% (P<0.01) compared with the control. In addition, there was no diarrhea occurred in this trial. As far as the immune function was concerned, the effects of EGF+pGRF gene plasmid and EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid were much better than that of other treatments. As shown in this experiment, the levels of IgG in EGF+pGRF gene plasmid and EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid groups were increased by 11.71% (P<0.05) and 11.24% (P<0.1) separately in the first week postweaned while were decreased by 9.53% (P<0.05) and 5.06% (P<0.1) individually. Moreover, the endocrine system was influenced by administration of EGF, Gln and pGRF gene plasmid to much degree. The effect of EGF+Gln+pGRF gene plasmid was better marked than that of pGRF gene plasmid and EGF+pGRF gene plasmid groups. The concentration of glucocorticoid was decrease by 40.40% in the first week and 88.57% in the second week respectively compared with the pGRF gene plasmid and EGF+pGRF gene plasmid treatments. In contrast with the change of level of glucocorticoid , the concentration of growth hormone was increased to some degree. However, the rule of this change is the same for GH and glucocorticoid.