Piglet Gut Health with START+: the way nature provides

Written by Kobe Lannoo, Global Lead Swine

START+ is an innovative prebiotic concept based on components that occur naturally in sow milk. Studies have shown that this concept improves piglet gut maturation and, in addition, protects the gut from pathogenic invaders after weaning. The result: gut maturation and protection that mimic natural processes.

When piglets are born, their intestine is in a very immature state – this holds for the morphology and microbiome, as well as for the intestinal gut barrier. In nature, the gut has about 12 weeks to adapt and be ready for a 100% solid diet and has a gradual weaning period. During that time, the intestinal villi grow, a strong intestinal barrier is formed, and a rich and diverse microbiome is established.

However, in our modern and highly prolific industrial environment, this ingenious system is put under a lot of stress. Pathogens and toxins are constantly threatening to infect piglets and cause the well-known intestinal problems that we all dread. Multiple nutritional strategies are needed to overcome these challenges. START+ – an innovative and natural prebiotic concept – is definitely one of the strategies that deserve your attention. Based on components that occur naturally in sow milk, this concept has the potential to speed up a piglet’s gut maturation before weaning and, in addition, protect gut health from pathogenic invaders after weaning.

The main ingredients of sow milk are fat, lactose and protein. These components are all easy to digest, and they are ideal for providing the piglets with energy and helping them grow. However, a 4th important ingredient – called milk-oligosaccharides – is undigestible. Why would Mother Nature include this component in sow milk if piglets are not able to use it?

The answer is clear: milk-oligosacchIarides are the first natural prebiotics, stimulating the growth of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus, strengthening the gut barrier, and stimulating the intestine’s morphologic growth. So, in short, they prepare the piglet’s intestine to become independent from sow milk.

Via enzymatic treatment of lactose with β-galactosidase, researchers have been able to develop something closely related to milk-oligosac-charides: namely, molecules called Galacto-Oligosaccharides (GOS). Because GOS mimic many of the beneficial functionalities of the milk-oligosaccharides, they are the optimal prebiotic concept for preparing very young piglets for weaning and protecting their gut health and integrity after weaning. GOS are the basis of the START+ concept, which is a cornerstone of Earlyfeed’s nutritional strategies for piglet nutrition.

Agrifirm was able to select the most effective GOS by using an in-house developed in vitro model to test prebiotic activity in piglets. These GOS were included in the START+ concept, which is designed to stimulate the early maturation of the gastro-intestinal tract of newborn piglets.

When enriching an Earlyfeed creep feed with START+, several trials demonstrated longer villi and better villus height/crypt depth ratio (Figure 1), more beneficial bacteria (Figure 2), and an improved production of short chain fatty acids, which indicate better development of the piglets’ intestines. This improved gut maturation resulted in greater piglet performance.

Furthermore, the use of GOS was associated with improved gut barrier function and increased piglet immunity, leading to a healthier piglet and less need for antibiotic treatments (the number of piglets that are treated daily with antibiotics dropped from 9.5% to 5.5%).

A dramatic stress on a piglet’s intestinal health occurs after weaning. Shifting from a 95% milk-based diet to a 100% plant-derived diet remains a challenge at this very young age. Under these circumstances, pathogens like E. coli ETEC K88 find the ideal conditions to proliferate and induce weaning diarrhea. But GOS have shown their benefits here as well. In addition to stimulating gut maturation, recent studies have shown that GOS are also strongly effective in reducing E. coli ETEC K88 adhesion (Figure 3), protecting the intestine from damage to the gut barrier, and lowering ETEC-induced inflammation.

These recent results clearly indicate that a prebiotic concept like START+ can be used much more broadly than previously expected, since after weaning maturation and protection go hand-in-hand.

Copying nature’s finest concepts to give your piglets a head start is exactly what START+ is all about. Better gut maturation before weaning assures that piglets are well prepared for the most stressful period they will ever encounter. At the same time, START+ protects and supports them at the moment they need it most. That’s the miracle Mother Nature has provided us with – and START+ makes it available to the industry.