Gut health and maintaining optimal structure and function of the gastrointestinal(GI) tract is necessary to achieve sustainable and cost-effective pig production.
The gastrointestinal tract is responsible for regulating physiological homeostasis that provides the pig with the ability to cope with infectious (e.g., enteric pathogens) and non-infectious (e.g., production stressors) challenges.
What does the term ‘gut health’ mean?
‘Gut health’ is a commonly used term that attracts a lot of attention, although a clear definition of this expression seems to be missing. However, generally speaking, according to Pluske et al. 2018:
‘Gut health’ encompasses a number of physiological and functional characteristics including:
➢digestion and absorption of nutrients.
➢ metabolism and energy generation
➢ a stable and appropriate microbiota / microbiome
➢defense mechanisms including barrier function and immune mechanisms of the mucosa
➢ and interactions between these components
Due to the profound changes in (GI) tract structure and function associated with the post-weaning transition, “gut health” in piglets is of great interest for pig production.
The inclusion of antimicrobial compounds, in diets and (or) in water, including antibiotics, kill microbes or inhibit their growth which helps piglets during this period of change. Reducing the impacts of post-weaning growth control.
However, the need to implement different feeding strategies and (or) include feed additives (e.g. Pew Charitable Trusts, 2017) due to bans/reductions in the use of certain antimicrobial compounds in some parts of the world have placed greater emphasis on the ‘healthy gut‘ concept.
A deterioration in the pig’s intestinal health due to the presence of enteric diseases after weaning can be directly related to a decline in the animal’s overall health. Although some direct relationships may be established between the performance and efficiency of the pig and a “healthy” GI tract, sometimes this connection is more subtle and less obvious. Especially in the absence of evident enteric diseases (Pluske et al. , 2018).
One of the keys to understanding ‘gut health’ is the microbiota, i.e. the ecological community of commensal microorganisms, symbiotics and pathogens that inhabit the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
It should be noted that, as a synonym, microbiome describes the collective genomes of microorganisms tha...
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