Supplementing oat hulls to the diet of suckling piglets altered their intestinal tract and colonic microbiota development

Hubèrt M J van Hees; Koen Chiers; Leo A den Hartog; Theo A T G van Kempen; Dominiek Maes; Sam Millet; Geert P J Janssens

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2022.10.002

Supplementing oat hulls to the diet of suckling piglets altered their intestinal tract and colonic microbiota development

Anim Nutr. 2022 Oct 20:12:284-296. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2022.10.002. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Authors

Hubèrt M J van Hees^{1

2}, Koen Chiers³, Leo A den Hartog^{2

4}, Theo A T G van Kempen^{2

5}, Dominiek Maes⁶, Sam Millet^{1

7}, Geert P J Janssens¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
² Trouw Nutrition Research and Development, Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
³ Department of Pathology, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
⁴ Animal Nutrition, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
⁶ Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium.
⁷ ILVO (Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), Melle, Belgium.

Abstract

Current study evaluated the effect of a fine and coarsely ground insoluble dietary fibre source on the gastrointestinal development of suckling pigs. Oat hulls (OH) were selected as a model feedstuff, rich in cellulose, lignin, and insoluble dietary fibre. Three experimental supplemental diets were formulated: a finely ground, low fibre and nutrient dense diet served as control (CON). For the 2 high fibre diets, 15% heat-treated starch in CON was exchanged with OH, either finely (OH-f) or coarsely ground (OH-c). Litters of 10 primi- and multiparous sows (mean litter size 14.6 ± 0.84) were used. Within a litter, experimental diets were allotted to triplets of 4 piglets. From approximately 12 d of age, piglets' individual feed intakes were recorded 2 times per day when separated from their dam for 70 min. Piglets could suckle with their dam for the remainder of the day. On d 24 and 25, from the total pool of 120 piglets, seven healthy well-eating piglets per treatment were selected for post-mortem evaluation, resulting in 14 replicates per treatment. Consumption of OH-c and OH-f did not impede clinical health and production performance of piglets. The full stomach weights tended to be greater for OH-c compared to OH-f whereas CON was intermediate (P = 0.083). Supplementing OH significantly increased ileal villus height and caecal dry matter concentration (P < 0.05). For the colon, OH increased its length, contents weight, short-chain fatty acid concentration and reduced total bacterial count as well as γ-proteobacteria count and proportion (P < 0.05). The OH-c treatment specifically increased full gastrointestinal tract weight and caecum contents weight compared to piglets fed CON and OH-f. Furthermore, OH-c reduced colonic crypt depth when compared to OH-f (P = 0.018). In conclusion, supplementing OH to a diet for suckling piglets exerted subtle developmental effects on gastrointestinal morphology and colonic microbial community. These effects were largely independent from the particle size of the OH.

Keywords: Gastrointestinal development; Insoluble fibre; Oat hull; Suckling piglet.