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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #309398
Title: Effects of dietary humic and butyric acid on growth performance and response to lipopolysaccharide in young pigs

Author
item WEBER, THOMAS - Elanco Animal Health, Inc
item VAN SAMBECK, DANA - Iowa State University
item GABLER, NICHOLAS - Iowa State University
item Kerr, Brian
item MORELAND, STEVE - Nutriad Inc
item JOHAL, SERGE - Grain Processing Corporation
item EDMONDS, MICHAEL - Kent Nutrition Group

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/30/2014
Publication Date: 9/1/2014
Citation: Weber, T., van Sambeck, D., Gabler, N., Kerr, B.J., Moreland, S., Johal, S., Edmonds, M. 2014. Effects of dietary humic and butyric acid on growth performance and response to lipopolysaccharide in young pigs. Journal of Animal Science. 92:4172–4179.

Interpretive Summary: Humic and butyric acids have been shown to affect inflammation in animals, and as a consequence, may affect animal performance. Little information is available, however, on the addition of humic or butyric acid to diets fed to growing pigs. Based upon data obtained in these experiments, butyric or humic acid, fed separately or in combination, had no effect on growth performance in healthy pigsy. However, both butyric and humic acid inclusion appeared to play a role in modulating different aspects of the immune response to lipopolyasccharide injection. Research results described in this report provide nutritionists at universities, feed companies, allied industries, and swine production facilities data on the potential of butyric and humic acid to impact immune function and on pig growth.

Technical Abstract: Humic acid (MFG) and fat protected butyric acid (BA) has been shown to modulate energy metabolism and inflammation. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the effects of MFG and BA, alone and in combination, on growth performance and response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation in young pigs. An experiment was conducted using 448 crossbred weanling pigs which were stratified by gender and BW, and were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement consisting of control and MFG, with or without BA. The pigs were housed at a density of 8 pigs/pen and with 14 pens/dietary treatment. Growth performance and feed intake were assessed for 35 d. To assess the inflammation related properties of MFG and BA, on d-36 a subset of 48 pigs from each treatment was i.m. injected with either sterile saline or E. coli LPS (20 µg/kg BW; E. coli serotype O55:B5) for 4 h in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (±LPS; ±MFG; ±BA; n = 6 pigs/treatment group) to assess their febrile response as well as serum, liver, and muscle cytokine responses. Results from this study showed that neither BA or MFG alone or in combination altered pig ADG, ADFI, and G:F. Moreover, in the presence of LPS, the combination of MFG and BA resulted in a 62% decrease (P = 0.08) in serum cortisol compared to when neither compound was added to the diet. In contrast, serum IGF-I was increased (P < 0.01) by 59% from the use of both MFG and BA, as opposed to when neither was added, with pigs subjected to LPS. However, both MFG and BA inclusion appear to have a complex role in modulating different aspects of the immune response to LPS, particularly when both are fed in combination. Humic acid also appeared to play a role in decreasing oxidative stress.