E ffect of fermented feed on growth performance, holistic metabolism and fecal microbiota in weanling piglets

Supplying diet with fermented feed (FF) has great potential to improve gut health and growth performance in weanling piglets. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of FF on growth performance, holistic metabolism and fecal microbiota in weanling piglets, and to explore modulating metabolism and gut health as a possible mechanism. A total of 48 weanling piglets were randomly divided into two treatments with control (CON) diet and FF diet. The results showed that diarrhea rate and feed intake/bodyweight gain ratio were decreased by 40.51% and 7.89% (P < 0.05), respectively, in FF group compared with CON group. The results of biochemical metabolites showed that the concentration of ApoA1 in serum was significantly higher in FF group than that in CON group (P < 0.05). Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics analysis revealed that increased levels of plasma glycine, trimethylamine, pyruvate and succinate (P < 0.05), whereas decreased level of plasma lactate (P < 0.05) were observed in FF group compared with CON group. Elevated levels of urine leucine, isoleucine, valine and lactate (P < 0.05), while reduced levels of urine trimethylamine oxide, taurine and trans-aconitate (P < 0.05) were observed in FF group related to CON group. Fecal microbiota was altered in FF group, resulting decreased relative abundance of the genus Lactobacillus and increased that of Prevotella in the feces by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. These noval findings provide an evidence for the potential mechanisms that should be the improvement of immunity, holistic metabolism and gut microbiota. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.