Effect Yeast and MOS evaluated in Weaners
NETHERLANDS - An Animal Sciences Group from Wageningen University has carried out an experiment to determine the effects of yeast culture (XPCLS) and yeast culture XPCLS + mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) in pig diets on the performance, gut integrity, and immune function in weanling pigs.
21 December 2007
3 minute read
The researchers also wanted to determine whether these dietary supplements can replace antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP) in pig diets. The yeast supplmented diets did appear to have production benefits.
Up to day 35 post-weaning, the average daily feed intake was not affected by dietary treatment. Performance was similar in piglets that were fed diets supplemented with AGP, yeast culture, and yeast culture + MOS as they were in the control group.. However, ther average daily gain of piglets that were fed the control diet in piglets tended to be lower, as was feed conversion ratio - compared to those weaners fed fed the other diets.
The research also found that gut integrity was not affected by dietary treatment. Blood cell composition, villous length, crypt depth, and microbial composition, were however, affected by time after weaning.
Gut physiology
Gut physiology was noticeably better at five weeks post-weaning than at two weeks post-weaning.The results from this study suggest that yeast culture could be an alternative to AGPs in weaner diets. The addition of MOS containing yeast culture to piglet formulations would not improve performance and immunity of weanling pigs above that of yeast culture alone. The researchers say more investigations are needed on the mode of action.
A total of 480 weaned pigs (27-days old with an average live weight of 7.8 kg) were involved in the investigations which evaluated four diet formulations:
- diets without AGP and without yeast culture (control diet);
- diets with AGP but no yeast culture;
- diets without AGP but with 0.125% yeast culture;
- diets without AGP but with 0.125% yeast culture + 0.2% MOS.
Further Reading
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- You can view an abstract and more details by clicking here. |
