Authors : Y.Y. Ding, C.H. Zhang, X.L. He, L. Huang and Z.J. Yin
Abstract: The study investigated the effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Additives (CHMD) supplemented diets on weaned piglets antioxidant status, serum biochemical parameters, digesive enzymatic activities in a 3 weeks trial. Total of 144 crossbred (Duroc x Landrace x Yorkshire) weaning piglets (BW = 5.86±0.24 kg) from 18 L with an age of 21 days were selected and divided randomly into 4 groups balanced for sex, weight and litter origin. In each group, the piglets were divided randomly into 3 pens (replicates, 12 pigs per pen), a corn-soybean meal-expanded soybean basal diet without antibiotics or probiotics was used as control and the other 3 groups were fed the control diet supplemented with the CHMD at rations of 0.5, 1 and 1.5% (wt/wt). After completion of the feeding experiment, 3 piglets from each treatment were randomly selected to determine the antioxidant status, serum biochemical parameters, digesive enzymatic activities. In the 3 weeks trial, the data showed that the 1% CHMD group had higher protease activity in stomach digesta than the control and 0.5% CHMD group (p<0.01) than 1.5% CHMD group (p<0.05). The 1.5% CHMD group showed similar significant difference in protease activities of piglets compared with the control group (p<0.05). The 1% CHMD group had higher lipase activity than the control group in the stomach and jejunum digesta (p<0.01) in the duodenum and ileum digesta (p<0.05) and than the 0.5% CHMD group in the stomach and jejunum digesta (p<0.05). The 1% CHMD group had higher amylase activity than the control group in the jejunum digesta (p<0.01) in the duodenum and ileum digesta (p<0.05) and than the 0.5% CHMD group and 1.5% CHMD group in the jejunum digesta (p<0.05). The 1.5% CHMD group had higher amylase activity than the control group in the ileum digesta (p<0.05). The 1% CHMD group had higher T-AOC and CAT activities than the control group and 0.5% CHMD group (p<0.01), than the 1.5% CHMD group (p<0.05). The 1.5% CHMD group had higher T-AOC and CAT activities than the control group (p<0.05). The 1% CHMD group had higher GSH-PX and SOD activities than the control group (p<0.05). The 1% CHMD group (p<0.01) and the 1.5% CHMD group (p<0.05) had lower MDA content than the control group. Compared with the control group, dietary supplementation of 1% CHMD reduced the serum BUN (p<0.05) and increased the total serum protein (p<0.05), reduced the serum triglyceride and total cholesterol contents (p<0.01). The results show that the CHMD used in this study as a dietary additive could enhance the antioxidant status, serum biochemical parameters, digesive enzymatic activities in weaned piglets, additionaly imply that the dose of 1% CHMD supplement is the most ideal concentration to achieve the most beneficial effects.
Y.Y. Ding, C.H. Zhang, X.L. He, L. Huang and Z.J. Yin, 2011. Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Additives on Antioxidant Status, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Digestive Enzymatic Activities in Weaned Piglets. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 10: 2004-2009.