| In intensive pig farms,nursery pigs feeding management is closely related to breeding economic efficiency,and it occupies an important position in pig industry.However,weaning stress and other factors tend to cause problems such as increased diarrhea,slow growth and rising death rate of nursery pigs,which cause great losses to the pig industry.The development and utilization of agricultural by-products,which contain a large amount of bioactive substances,is an effective way to solve weaning stress and become an important means to reduce and replace resistance.Grape pomace is rich in proanthocyanidins,catechins and flavonoids and other biologically active ingredients,with antioxidant,anti-inflammatory,antibacterial,antiviral and other functions.Therefore,grape pomace can be used as a good feed source to promote the growth and development of nursery pigs and improve the economic efficiency of farming.In this study,120 nursery pigs of 8.42±0.19 kg at 28 days of age were randomly divided into a basal diet group and a basal diet supplemented with 5% fermented grape pomace group according to their body weight for a28-day trial.Hematoxylin-eosin staining,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing were used to investigate the effects of fermented grape pomace on the growth and development and immune performance of piglets.The following main results were obtained in this study:1.From 0 to 14 days,the average daily weight gain,daily feed intake and feed-to-weight ratio of nursery pigs in the group with 5% fermented grape pomace were not significantly different(P>0.05);from 0 to 28 and 14 to 28 days,the feed-to-weight ratio of nursery pigs in the group with 5% fermented grape pomace was significantly lower(P<0.05);from 0 to 28 days,the diarrhea rate of nursery pigs in the group with 5% fermented grape pomace was significantly lower(P<0.05).2.Compared with the control group,the serum levels of immune indicators IgG and IL-10 were significantly higher(P<0.05),the levels of inflammatory factors IL-6 and TNF-αwere significantly lower(P<0.05),and the levels of antioxidant indicators MDA were significantly lower(P<0.05)in the nursery pigs fed diets with 5% fermented grape pomace.3.The small intestine villi height(VH)and villi crypt ratio(V/C)of nursery pigs fed5% fermented grape pomace were significantly higher(P<0.05);ileal tight junction proteins(ZO-1,Occludin-1 and Claudin-1)abundance and mRNA expression were significantly increased;ileal mucin(MUC-2)and secretory immunoglobulin A(SIgA)abundance were significantly increased(P<0.05);the number of ileal cupped cells was significantly increased(P<0.05).4.At the phylum level,the relative abundance of microbial Spirochaetes in nursery pig manure was significantly lower(P<0.05)in the group with 5% fermented grape pomace compared to the control group.At the genus level,the relative abundance of the genus Gemmiger was significantly higher(P<0.05)and the relative abundance of Sporobacter was significantly lower(P<0.05)in the test group.5.The metabolomics results showed that there were significant differences in intestinal metabolites between the group adding 5% fermented grape pomace and the control group,and four metabolites were down-regulated,affecting the pathway of butyrate and purine metabolism(P<0.05).In conclusion,the addition of 5% fermented grape pomace to the diet can improve the growth and immune performance of nursery pigs,improve the intestinal microbial structure and promote their growth and development.This study is important for pig production to alleviate nursery pigs’ stress,improve production efficiency and reduce economic costs. |
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