Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (12): 6431-6441.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2025.12.044

• PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Astragali Radix and Fermented Astragali Radix on Growth Performance, Serum Antioxidant, Immune and Biochemical Indexes of Weaned Piglets

SONG Yanchen1,2, CAI Long2,3, CHE Yuyan1,2, LIU Zeqing2,4, ZHU Longlong2,5, CHEN Guoshun1*, WANG Jing2,3   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
    2. Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China;
    3. Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences-Oklahoma State University Joint Laboratory of Animal Science, Beijing 100097, China;
    4. College of Animal Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing 102206, China;
    5. College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China
  • Received:2024-11-05 Published:2025-12-24

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Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of unfermented Astragali Radix (AR) and fermented AR on the growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, antioxidant capacity, and immune function of weaned piglets. One hundred healthy Landrace×Large crossbred weaned piglets with similar body weight (8.77±0.68 kg) at 28 days of age were assigned randomly into four treatment groups. Each treatment group had five replicate pens per group and five piglets per pen. The dietary treatments included basal diet (Control group), basal diet + amoxicillin 800 mg·kg-1 (Amoxicillin group), basal diet + unfermented AR 1 g·kg-1 (AR group), and basal diet + fermented AR 1 g·kg-1 (Fermented AR Group). The experiment lasted 42 days. Results showed that: 1) Compared with the control group, dietary fermented AR supplementation significantly increased the average daily gain and final weight of weaned piglets (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with the AR group and the amoxicillin group, the final weight of weaned piglets in the fermented AR group was significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01). 2) Compared with the control group, dietary fermented AR supplementation significantly increased the apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein and phosphorus in weaned piglets (P<0.01 or P<0.05), and dietary AR supplementation significantly increased the apparent digestibility of crude protein and phosphorus (P<0.05, P<0.01). 3) The total protein (TP) and albumin content in the serum of weaned piglets in the fermented AR group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05), and the TP content was significantly higher than that of the amoxicillin group and the AR group (P<0.05). 4) Compared with the control group, dietary fermented AR supplementation significantly increased the total antioxidant capacity and catalase activity in the serum of weaned piglets (P<0.05). 5) The content of immunoglobulin G in the serum of weaned piglets in the fermented AR group was significantly higher than that of the control group and the amoxicillin group (P<0.05), and the contents of interleukin 1β and interleukin 6 were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). In conclusion, under the condition of the current experiment, the effect of adding fermented AR to the basal diet is better than that of AR. The addition of fermented AR can improve the apparent digestibility of nutrients, improve the antioxidant, immune and biochemical indicators in the serum of weaned piglets, thereby promoting the growth performance and health status.

Key words: fermented Astragali Radix, weaned piglets, growth performance, immune index, antioxidant index

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