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Effects of a functional fatty acid blend on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and serum profiles in weaned piglets.

Objective
The objective of this study was to determine whether dietary supplementation with a functional fatty acid blend (FA) that contains 31.4% butyric acid and 4.99% medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) improve growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immunity status, and anti-inflammatory ability in weaned piglets.


Methods
One hundred and forty-four healthy piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) with an average body weight (BW) of 7.98 ± 3.43 kg were randomly divided into three groups with six replicate pens and eight piglets per pen: Normal control (NC): a corn-soybean basal diet; FA1: a basal diet supplemented with 1,000 mg/kg of a functional fatty acid; FA2: a basal diet supplemented with 2,000 mg/kg of a functional fatty acid. The experiment lasted for 28 d. On d 14 and 28, one piglet in each pen from NC and FA2 groups was randomly selected for antioxidative index and immunoglobulins. On d 28, one piglet in each pen from NC and FA2 groups was randomly selected for intestinal morphology and inflammatory factor.


Results
We observed that FA supplementation linearly increased (p<0.05) ADG and the final body weight. There was higher (p<0.05) catalase on d 14, and immunoglobulin (Ig) A and IgM on d 28 in piglets supplemented with FA2 than in the NC group. Moreover, dietary FA2 reduced (p<0.05) crypt depth of ileum in piglets. The concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8, and IL-10 in jejunum were lower (p<0.05) in the FA2 group compared with the NC group.


Conclusion
Therefore, the overall results suggests that the FA may help to improve gut health, antioxidant status, and immune parameters resulting in the improvement of growth performance.