Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (7): 2942-2955.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.07.025

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Lactoferrin on Intestinal Microbial Diversity of Weaned Piglets

JI Peng1, ZHANG Bin2, ZHANG Chunyong1, XING Xiaokun1, YANG Jia1, LIU Shaona2, FANG Die1, PAN Hongbin1, ZHAO Yanguang1*, AN Qingcong1*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science of Yunnan Province, Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China;
    2. Yunnan Academy of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Kunming 650224, China
  • Received:2022-11-07 Online:2023-07-23 Published:2023-07-21

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effects of lactoferrin supplementation on gut microbial diversity in weaned piglets. Twelve weaned DianTai piglets with similar initial body weight of (6.12±0.54) kg were randomly divided into Control group, Bacitracin group and Lactoferrin group. Piglets in Control group were fed with basal diet, Bacitracin group was added with 0.5 g·kg-1 bacitracin premix in the basal diet, while Lactoferrin group was supplemented with 150 mg·kg-1 lactoferrin in the basal diet. The experimental period was 28 days. Fecal samples were collected on days 7, 21 and 28, and fecal microbial diversity was detected by high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that there was no significant difference in intestinal microbial diversity of weaned piglets (P>0.05). At the phylum level, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were dominant phylum on days 7, 21 and 28. At 7th day, there was no significant difference in the relative abundance of Firmicutes or Bacteroidetes among all groups (P>0.05). Compared with the control group, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in lactoferrin group decreased by 1.43% and that of Bacteroidetes increased by 16.4%. On day 21, compared with Control and Bacitracin groups, there was no significant difference in the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in Lactoferrin group (P>0.05). Compared with Control group, the relative abundance of Firmicutes decreased by 16.4% and that of Bacteroidetes increased by 34.1% in Lactoferrin group. On the 28th day of the experiment, compared with the control group, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in Lactoferrin group was significantly decreased (P<0.05). At the genus level, Lactobacillus was the dominant genus on days 7, 21 and 28, and there was no significant difference in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus among all groups (P>0.05). On day 7 of the experiment, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus in Lactoferrin group was reduced by 50.21% compared with the Control group. On day 21, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus was 8.42% lower than that of the Control group. On day 28, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus in the Lactoferrin group was 16.09% lower than that in the Control group.In conclusion, in this study, it was found that dietary lactoferrin supplementation did not significantly affect the intestinal microbial richness and diversity of weaned DianTai piglets. The dominant phylum in intestinal microbial flora of piglets at 7, 21 and 28 d after weaning were Firmicutes and Bacteroides, and the dominant genus was Lactobacillus.

Key words: weaning piglets, lactoferrin, gut microbes

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