Progres® and Progut® in the weaner diet increased piglet resilience to F4-ETEC in the post-weaning period – A poster from Schothorst Feed Research at the ZeroZincSummit2022

ZeroZincSummit2022, organized by the Danish Pig Research Centre SEGES and Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, gathered more than 450 delegated to Copenhagen, Denmark on 22-23 June 2022. The conference focused on the withdrawal of medical doses of zinc oxide (ZnO) from piglet diets in EU, from June 2022 onwards.

Dr. Anouschka Middelkoop from Schothorst Feed Research, the Netherlands, presented a poster with a title “Effect of dietary resin acids and hydrolysed yeast in piglets challenged with F4-Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli”.

Background and Objectives: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) that expresses F4 fimbriae is a major cause of post-weaning diarrhoea. Adding tall oil fatty acids (TOFA; Progres®) to the diet improves the intestinal barrier function and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast hydrolysate (YH; Progut® Extra) has a high activity against ETEC in vitro. We studied the effect of dietary amendment with TOFA consisting of 9% resin acids and/or YH in an F4-ETEC challenge with piglets.

Material and Methods: From weaning (30 days old, ~7.8 kg), piglets received: a control diet (crude protein level of 20%) + colistin via drinking water as positive control (T1: PC), a control diet as negative control (T2: NC), TOFA at 1.0 kg/ton feed (T3), YH at 1.5 kg/ton feed (T4), or TOFA+YH at 1.0+1.5 kg/ton (T5) On D10 post-weaning each piglet (n=10/treatment) was orally administered an F4-ETEC at ~5.9×10⁹ CFU/piglet. Faecal consistency was scored and faeces collected for ETEC qPCR and/or myeloperoxidase quantification on D0, 8, 1115, 18, 20 and 22 post-weaning (Figure 1).

Results: Treatments affected faecal consistency (P<0.0001), with improved scores for colistin, Progres® and Progut® versus negative control T2 and the combination treatment. Also a shorter duration of diarrhoea after F4-ETEC inoculation was seen for colistin, Progres® and Progut® versus the negative control T2 (P<0.05).

The proportion of pigs shedding F4-ETEC over time is visualised in Figure 2 for each treatment group. Piglet performance between D0-22 and fecal myeloperoxidase concentrations were equal in all groups.

In conclusion,  Progres® and/or Progut® in the weaner diet increased piglet resilience to F4-ETEC in the post-weaning period.

Reference: Anouschka Middelkoop, Ramon Tichelaar, Xiaonan Guan, Hannele Kettunen, Juhani Vuorenmaa, Martin Peter Rydal, Lone Brøndsted, Michela Gambino, Jens Peter Nielsen, and Francesc Molist. Effect of dietary resin acids and hydrolysed yeast in piglets challenged with F4-Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. Abstract in: ZeroZincSummit2022, Copenhagen, Denmark, 22–23 June, 2022.