Maternal Programming of Nursery Pig Performance and Gut Microbiome through Live Yeast Supplementation

Simple Summary Post-weaning diarrhea is a critical health and welfare issue in swine production systems as the transition from sow milk to solid feed is a stressful event that is accompanied by microbiome community disturbances that can require antimicrobial treatment or other individualized dietary interventions. This study investigated how feeding sows live yeast during gestation and lactation affects the growth and microbiomes of their offspring in the post-weaning period, without directly feeding live yeast to offspring. The offspring of yeast-fed sows displayed altered growth performance and gut microbiome composition when compared to offspring born to sows fed a control diet. The microbiomes of offspring born to yeast-fed sows contained more taxa associated with beneficial fermentative processes, indicating that the manipulation of offspring microbiomes through maternal diet is a viable method for conferring beneficial microbiome characteristics to offspring in swine systems.Abstract The supplementation of live yeast in pig diets is common in the post-weaning phase due to its prebiotic and probiotic effects, but little is known regarding the potential of feeding live yeast to gestating or lactating sows for transferring such benefits to their offspring through maternal programming. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of live yeast supplementation in sow diets during late gestation and lactation on their reproductive performance and its impact on offspring performance and gut microbiomes in the post-weaning period. Three dietary treatments were imposed on 92 mixed-parity sows during late gestation and lactation based upon the inclusion level of live yeast in corn/soybean meal-based diets: Control (0% yeast), Low (0.1% yeast), and High (0.5% yeast). Nursery pigs in the Low group displayed the highest feed intake in the post-weaning period and greater total gain and average daily gain in comparison to pigs in the High group. The gut microbiomes of nursery pigs differed in composition according to maternal dietary treatment groups at days 4 and 28 post weaning, highlighting higher abundances of bacterial genera typically associated with fermentation roles in the gut microbiomes of offspring of yeast-fed sows. These results indicate that the supplementation of live yeast in sow diets, depending on the inclusion level, may result in beneficial performance and specific microbiome traits for their offspring in the post-weaning period.