Administration of loperamide and addition of wheat bran to the diets of weaner pigs decrease the incidence of diarrhoea and enhance their gut maturation

The influence of fibre inclusion and transit time regulation on the performance, health status, microbial activity and population, physico-chemical characteristics of the hindgut digesta and intestinal morphology in early weaned pigs were examined. For these experiments, wheat bran (WB) was used as fibre source and loperamide as a drug (LOP) to increase the digesta transit time. In Expt 1, a total of 128 early weaned pigs were randomly distributed in a 2×2 factorial combination of WB inclusion (0 v. 40g/kg) and LOP administration (0 v. 0.07mg/kg body weight) during 13d. For Expt 2, a total of twenty-four piglets were allotted to three dietary treatments for 15d with the same basal diet (control diet) as Expt 1; a diet with 80g/kg of WB and the combination of WB and LOP. In Expt 1, LOP improved the average daily feed intake and average daily gain of the animals (P=0.001 and 0.007, respectively). The same result was obtained when WB was combined with LOP. The WB-LOP group also showed a higher concentration of SCFA (P=0.013), acetic acid (P=0.004) and propionic acid (P=0.093). On the other hand, WB inclusion reduced the organic matter and crude protein digestibility (P=0.001) and tended to decrease the enterobacteria population (P=0.089). In Expt 2, WB increased the butyric acid concentration (P=0.086). We concluded that the inclusion of WB to modify the intestinal microbiota activity combined with LOP may be beneficial to animal health and performance. © 2009 The Authors.