Effects of dietary supplementation with uridine monophosphate on performance and intestinal morphology of weanling piglets

As the richest nucleotide in milk of sows, uridine monophosphate (UMP) is limited in feed-stuffs. The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with UMP into starter diets for weanling piglets on intestinal morphometry. Forty-eight piglets (Landrace x Large White x Duroc) were weaned at 21 d and randomly assigned to 2 groups, the Control and UMP groups, with 6 replicates in each group and 4 piglets per replicate, and were fed 1 of the following diets for 14 d: a conventional starter diet (CSD) and CSD+UMP (0.07%), respectively. Six piglets from each treatment group were sacrificed on d 14. Growth performance and intestinal morphology of the piglets were measured. Compared with the control group, significant increases in UMP group were observed for ADFI (P < 0.05) and ADG (P < 0.01); piglets fed the UMP-supplemented diets obviously decreased F: G (P < 0.01). Dietary supplementation with UMP decreased diarrhea frequency markedly (23.26% vs. 9.17%, P < 0.05). As for the intestinal morphometry, both jejunum villus height (VH, P = 0.077) and villus height: crypt depth (VH: CD, P = 0.015) were higher in the UMP group, along with ileum VH (P = 0.026) and VH: CD (P = 0.004). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with UMP during the immediate postweaning improved the growth performance of the piglets and may have a positive influence on intestinal morphology development.