Evaluation of Dietary Administration of Chestnut and Quebracho Tannins on Growth, Serum Metabolites and Fecal Parameters of Weaned Piglets

In pig livestock, alternatives to in-feed antibiotics are needed to control enteric infections.\r\nPlant extracts such as tannins can represent an alternative as a natural source of functional\r\ncompounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro digestibility and in vivo eects\r\nof oral supplementation of combined chestnut (Ch) and quebracho (Qu) tannins in order to establish if\r\nthey can induce a positive eect on weaned piglets’ performance, metabolic status and fecal parameters.\r\nIn vitro digestibility (dry matter, DM) of diets was calculated using a multi-step enzymatic technique.\r\nIn vitro digested diet samples were further tested on an intestinal porcine enterocyte cell line (IPEC-J2).\r\nWeaned piglets (n = 120; 28 2 day old) were randomly allotted to two groups (12 pens in total\r\nwith 10 pigs per pen): control (Ctrl) and treatment (Ch/Qu). After one week of adaptation (day\r\n0), 35-day-old piglets in the Ctrl group were fed a Ctrl diet and the Ch/Qu group were fed with\r\n1.25% Ch/Qu for 40 days. Body weight and feed intake per pen were recorded weekly. At day 40,\r\nblood and fecal samples were collected. Principal metabolic parameters were evaluated from blood\r\nsamples by enzymatic colorimetric analysis. Total phenolic compounds, urea, and ammonia in feces\r\nwere analyzed (Megazyme International, Bray, Ireland). In vitro digestibility and cell viability assays\r\nshowed that the inclusion of 1.25% Ch/Qu slightly reduced diet digestibility compared with the Ctrl\r\ndiet, while intestinal cell viability was not altered with low concentrations of Ch/Qu digesta compared\r\nwith Ctrl. In vivo results did not show any adverse eects of Ch/Qu on feed intake and growth performance, confirming that dietary inclusion of Ch/Qu at a concentration of 1.25% did not impair\r\nanimal performance. The decreased diet DM digestibility in the Ch/Qu diet may cause increased\r\nserum concentration of albumin (Ctrl: 19.30 0.88; Ch/Qu: 23.05 0.88) and albumin/globulin\r\nratio (Ctrl: 0.58 0.04; Ch/Qu: 0.82 0.04), but decreased creatinine (Ctrl: 78.92 4.18; Ch/Qu:\r\n54.82 4.18) and urea (Ctrl: 2.18 0.19; Ch/Qu: 0.95 0.19) compared with Ctrl. Pigs in the Ch/Qu\r\ngroup contained higher (p < 0.05) concentrations of fecal phenolic compounds and nitrogen than the\r\nCtrl group, while fecal ammonia and urea were not aected by tannins. In conclusion, Ch/Qu tannin\r\nsupplementation did not influence growth performance. Although lower digestibility was observed\r\nin the diet supplemented with Ch/Qu tannins, Ch/Qu supplementation did not show any adverse\r\neect on intestinal epithelial cell viability.