Effect of dietary supplementation with brewer's yeast hydrolysate on growth performance, faecal microbial counts, diarrhoea score, blood profile, rectal temperature in weanling pigs challenged with lipopolysaccharide

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of brewer's yeast hydrolysate (BYH) supplementation on growth performance, blood profile, diarrhoea score, faecal microbial and rectal temperature in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenged in weanling pigs. A total of 40 cross-bred weanling pigs [(Yorkshire x Landrace) x Duroc] with an average body weight of 8.15 +/- 0.87 kg were used in a 6 weeks experiment. Pigs were randomly allotted to the following four dietary treatments (five pigs/two replicate/treatment) according to their initial body weight and gender. Treatments were as follows: CON, basal diet + Saline injection; NC, basal diet + LPS challenge; PC1, basal diet + 1.0% BYH + saline injection; and PC2, basal diet + 1.0% BYH + LPS challenge. Our results demonstrated pig fed diets with BYH had higher (p < .05) average daily feed intake (ADFI) during week 2-4 as well as gain:feed (G:F) during the whole experimental period than pigs fed diets without BYH. At the end of experiment, faecal Escherichia coli counts in pigs with an LPS injection tended to increase (p = .08). Meanwhile, the rectal temperature concentration of IgM and lymphocyte percentage in pigs with an LPS injection increase (p = .05) at 6 and 12 hr. In conclusion, the supplementation of 1.0% BYH can improve ADFI and G:F, as well as may reduce the diarrhoea in weanling pigs.