Authors : Xiangshan Tang, Andrew A. Fatufe, Yulong Yin, Zhiru Tang, Shengping Wang, Zhiqiang Liu, Xinwu and Tie-Jun Li
Abstract: Up to thirty piglets with an average live body weight of 5.9±0.5 kg were challenged using enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and randomly assigned to three treatment groups fed a corn-soybean meal-based diet containing either no addition (control group), 0.1 g kg-1 of lactoferrampin-lactoferricin (lactoferrampin-lactoferricin group) or 0.1 g kg-1 of chlortetracycline (chlortetracycline group) for 21 days. Compared with the control group, dietary supplementation with lactoferrampin-lactoferricin or chlortetracycline increased the body weight and daily weight gain and decreased the feed to gain ratio, diarrhea rate and serum IgM and IgG levels (p<0.05). The serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, diamine oxidase and endothelin-1 were not significantly different among all treatment groups (p>0.05). Compared with the control group, dietary supplementation with lactoferrampin-lactoferricin changed the serum concentrations of 10 amino acids (p<0.05); dietary supplementation with chlortetracycline only changed the serum histidine concentration (p<0.05). These results indicate that lactoferrampin-lactoferricin and chlortetracycline have similar effects on piglets weaned at 21 days of age which is expected to have practical applications in the livestock industry.
Xiangshan Tang, Andrew A. Fatufe, Yulong Yin, Zhiru Tang, Shengping Wang, Zhiqiang Liu, Xinwu and Tie-Jun Li, 2012. Dietary Supplementation with Recombinant Lactoferrampin-Lactoferricin Improves Growth Performance and Affects Serum Parameters in Piglets. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 2548-2555.