Effect Of Dietary Plant Essential Oil On Growth Performance,Blood Index And Fecal Flora Of Weaned Piglets

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effects of adding plant essential oils and microencapsulated chlortetracycline to the diet on daily weight gain,diarrhea rate,serum biochemistry,immune and antioxidant properties and fecal flora of weaned piglets,so as to provide a theoretical basis for the replacement of antibiotics by plant essential oils in the production practice of weaned piglets.A total of 72 28-day-old weaned piglets with similar body weight were selected and randomly divided into 4 groups,with 3 replicates in each group and 6 piglets in each replicate.A single factor experimental design was adopted,and the groups were CON(control group),EOA(plant essential oil at 300g/t),EOB(plant essential oil at 500g/t),and CTE(microencapsulated chlortetracycline 1000g/t).The experiment lasted for 35 days with the first 5 days as adaptation period.This study consisted of three experiments:Experiment 1.Effects of adding plant essential oil to the diet on weight gain and diarrhea of weaned piglets.The results showed that adding vegetable essential oil and chlortetracycline to the diet of weaned piglets could improve the weight gain performance of weaned piglets and reduce the diarrhea rate.The differences in daily gain and final weight of weaned piglets among the groups were extremely significant(P<0.01);the differences in average daily gain among the groups were also extremely significant(P<0.01).The diarrhea rate from high to low was CON group>EOA group>EOB group>CTE group.The difference between groups was extremely significant(P<0.01).Experiment 2.Effects of adding plant essential oil to the diet on the serum biochemical indexes and antioxidant properties of weaned piglets.The results showed that the serum biochemical indexes of weaned piglets were all within the normal value range by adding plant essential oil and chlortetracycline to the diet of weaned piglets.The contents of CHO,ALB,TP,ALP,GLU and TG were not significantly different(P>0.05),but the contents of HDL and ALB/GLO were significantly different among the groups(P<0.05).The contents of GGT,LDL and UREA in serum were all at extremely significant levels(P<0.01).The immunoglobulin Ig G,Ig A and Ig M in the serum of weaned piglets were not significantly different(P>0.05),and the serum antioxidant indexes SOD,MDA,T-AOC,GSH-PX and CAT content were not significantly different(P>0.05)..Experiment 3.Effects of adding plant essential oil in the diet on the fecal flora of weaned piglets.Through the high-throughput sequencing technology of 16 S r RNA gene,it was found that there was no significant difference in the richness and diversity of fecal flora of weaned piglets by adding plant essential oil and chlortetracycline to the diet of weaned piglets(P>0.05).The dominant flora at the phylum level were Bacteroidota,Firmicutes,Proteobacteria and Spirochaetota.Except for the abundance of Firmicutes,which had a very significant effect between groups(P<0.01),there was no significant difference between the other phyla groups(P>0.05).At the genus level,the dominant genera were Prevotella,Prevotellaceae＿NK3B31＿group and Muribaculaceae,with no significant differences between groups(P>0.05).The results of this study show that the addition of 500 g / t plant essential oil to the diet of weaned piglets had a positive impact on improving the growth performance,serum immunity and antioxidant,and improving the fecal flora of piglets.