Effects of dietary supplementation with purple garlic powder and oregano essential oil on intestinal health in post-weaning piglets from commercial farms.

This work studied the effects of the inclusion of Purple Garlic Powder (PGP) and Oregano Essential Oil (OEO) in the feed, at different doses and combinations, on intestinal health and the growth performance of 140 and 3000 piglets, respectively, weaned at 21 days of age. Seven dietary treatments were used: a negative control group (basal diet), a positive control group with ZnO (3000 mg/Kg of feed), two groups with OEO at 0.4% and 1.2% respectively, two groups with PGP at 0.4% and 2% respectively and one group with OEO at 1.2% combined with PGP at 2%. Only the positive control group received ZnO in the diet. Each group of piglets received the treatment for seven weeks, from weaning, and were later sacrificed to obtain jejunum and ileum samples for counting of goblet cells, intraepithelial lymphocytes, and IgA-producing cells. The growth performance were measured at the beginning and at the end of the seven weeks. In jejunum and ileum, the number of goblet cells increased in the groups with ZnO, PGP 2%, OEO 1.2% and PGP 2% + OEO 1.2%, presenting significant differences with the rest of the groups. The results obtained for the intraepithelial lymphocyte count were in line with those obtained for the count of goblet cells. Regarding IgA-producing cells, the groups that showed significantly favourable results in the jejunum and ileum were OEO 1.2%, PGP 2% and their combination, but the groups that showed the most similar means to ZnO were the OEO 0.4% and the PGP 0.4%. Regarding the growth performance, PGP 2%, OEO 1.2% and their combination had similar results to ZnO. The intestinal health of piglets could be improved, without harming the growth performance, by means of the supplementation of PGP 2%, OEO 1.2% and PGP 2% + OEO 1.2% offering a natural alternative to the use of ZnO.

Oregano Essential Oil and Purple Garlic Powder Effects on Intestinal Health, Microbiota Indicators and Antimicrobial Resistance as Feed Additives in Weaning Piglets.

Finding alternatives to zinc oxide is a pressing issue for the pig production sector. We studied the impact of the bioactive components degradation of oregano essential oil (OEO) and purple garlic powder (PGP) during storage in silos, their effect on the morphometry of the jejunum and ileum and the cecal microbiota as intestinal health indicators in piglets during the post-weaning period. We also monitored antimicrobial resistance in the commensal indicator E. coli. Histological parameters and intestinal microbiota were measured in 140 piglets weaned at 21 days of age. Seven dietary treatments were used: a negative control group (basal diet), a positive control group with ZnO (3000 mg/kg of food), two groups with OEO at 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively, two groups with PGP 0.4% and 2%, respectively, and a group with OEO with 1.2% combined with PGP with 2%. Each group of piglets received the treatment for seven weeks, from weaning, before samples were taken. Antibiotic resistance profiles were measured in 81 E. coli strains. On this occasion, only the control groups, ZnO, OEO 1.2%, PGP 2% and OEO 1.2% + PGP 2% were used, and the samples were obtained from the cecal content. A progressive loss of the bioactive components of OEO and PGP was observed during the 34 days of storage (p < 0.05). PGP 2%, OEO 1.2% and their combination showed results similar to ZnO (p > 0.05), or superior in the study of intestinal morphometry and the values of E. coli and Lactobacillus. All categories showed high levels of resistance. Only the strains isolated from the OEO 1.2% group did not show resistance to colistin and presented the lowest resistance values. In general, high doses of the additives studied showed the best results, obtaining levels like or higher than those offered by ZnO.