RESEARCH: Yeast supplementation in newly weaned pigs

29-08-2012 | Pigs | Sows & Boars | News

German researchers in Stuttgart have published a study on the effect of yeast nucleotide supplementation in newly weaned pigs.

Dietary nucelotides have been shown to contribute to the renewal of small intestine epithelial cells.

Those same studies have also shown that dietary nucleotides can have an influence on the activity and composition of the microbial community in the small intestine.

To see whether these same effects could be observed in the newly weaned pigs 12 barrows weaned at the age of day 18 were fitted with T-cannula at the distal ileum.The piglets received a grain-soybean meal basal diet either with or without 1 g.kg dried yeast product containing free nucleotides.

Yeast dietary supplementation had no influence on bacterial count in the ileum, no affect on ileal concentrations of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), none on the total of SCFAs, and no affect on total lactic acid.

Moreover, there was no effect of supplemental yeast nucleotides on ileal α-amylase, leucine amino peptidase, maltase and lactase activities (p>0.05), as well as on ileal dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre digestibilities (p>0.05).

In conclusion, short-term supplementation with dietary yeast nucleotides did not affect microbial metabolite concentrations, bacterial numbers and enzyme activities in the ileal digesta as well as ileal nutrient digestibilities of newly weaned pigs.

Source: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition
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