Phytogenics and encapsulated sodium butyrate can replace antibiotics as growth promoters for lightly weaned piglets.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of essential oils plus dry herbs (PHYTO) and encapsulated sodium butyrate (BUT) supplementation compared with enramycin (ENR), as a growth promoter, on the performance, diarrhoea control and intestinal microbiota in lightly weaned piglets. Two hundred weaned piglets, 20 days old, 4.69 ± 0.56 kg, were submitted during the nursery phase (20 to 69 days of age) to four treatments: control (CTR)-without any additive supplementation; ENR (with 8 ppm of enramycin throughout), BUT (with 2000 ppm between 20 to 34 d, 1500 ppm between 34 to 48 d and 1000 ppm between 48 to 69 d), and PHYTO (150 ppm between 20 to 48 d). At 62 days old, forty piglets (10 replicates per treatment) were slaughtered to perform bacterial identification through 16S rRNA (V3-V4) sequencing of the caecal content. During the second phase of the trial (34 to 48 days), the BUT group showed higher DWG (P = 0.023) and BW (P = 0.039) than the CTR group, and all groups that received additives had better FCR than the CTR group (P = 0.001). In the last phase of the trial (48 to 69 days), the ENR group presented a better FCR (P = 0.054) than the CRT and other groups. In the total period (20 to 69 days), ENR and BUT showed better FCR (P = 0.006) than CRT. Diarrhoea incident data showed differences (P<0.05), favouring the BUT treatment compared to the CTR. Only the Megasphaeraceae and Streptococcaceae families showed differences (p<0.05) in relative abundance between CTR and PHYTO and between CTR and BUT, respectively. Differential abundances of the Megasphaera and Streptococcus genera were observed between CTR and PHYTO and CTR and BUT. Phytogenics and encapsulated sodium butyrate are able and effective for modulating the specific caecal microbiota, improving performance and controlling diarrhoea occurrence.

Inguinal Ring RNA Sequencing Reveals Downregulation of Muscular Genes Related to Scrotal Hernia in Pigs.

Scrotal hernias (SH) are common congenital defects in commercial pigs, characterized by the presence of abdominal contents in the scrotal sac, leading to considerable production and animal welfare losses. Since the etiology of SH remains obscure, we aimed to identify the biological and genetic mechanisms involved in its occurrence through the whole transcriptome analysis of SH affected and unaffected pigs' inguinal rings. From the 22,452 genes annotated in the pig reference genome, 13,498 were expressed in the inguinal canal tissue. Of those, 703 genes were differentially expressed (DE, FDR < 0.05) between the two groups analyzed being, respectively, 209 genes upregulated and 494 downregulated in the SH-affected group. Thirty-seven significantly overrepresented GO terms related to SH were enriched, and the most relevant biological processes were muscular system, cell differentiation, sarcome reorganization, and myofibril assembly. The calcium signaling, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, and cardiac muscle contraction were the major pathways possibly involved in the occurrence of the scrotal hernias. The expression profile of the DE genes was associated with the reduction of smooth muscle differentiation, followed by low calcium content in the cell, which could lead to a decreased apoptosis ratio and diminished muscle contraction of the inguinal canal region. We have demonstrated that genes involved with musculature are closely linked to the physiological imbalance predisposing to scrotal hernia. According to our study, the genes MYBPC1, BOK, SLC25A4, SLC8A3, DES, TPM2, MAP1CL3C, and FGF1 were considered strong candidates for future evaluation.