Environmentally enriched housing conditions affect pig welfare, immune system and gut microbiota in early life

Autor: Johanna M.J. Rebel, Henri Woelders, Norbert Stockhofe-Zurwieden, Hauke Smidt, Ingrid D. E. van Dixhoorn, Caifang Wen, Dirkjan Schokker
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
0301 basic medicine
Lipopolysaccharide
medicine.drug_class
Veterinary medicine
030106 microbiology
Antibiotics
Physiology
Gut microbiota
Gut flora
Microbiology
Early life
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
Dierenwelzijn en gezondheid
Immune system
Immunity
SF600-1100
Prevotella
medicine
Weaning
Life Science
Behaviour
MolEco
Animal Health & Welfare
Fokkerij & Genomica
VLAG
Host Pathogen Interaction & Diagnostics
Environmental enrichment
WIMEK
biology
Bacteriologie
Bacteriology
Bacteriology
Host Pathogen Interaction & Diagnostics
General Medicine
biology.organism_classification
QR1-502
Host Pathogen Interactie & Diagnostiek
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
Enrichment
Bacteriologie
Host Pathogen Interactie & Diagnostiek
WIAS
Pigs
Animal Breeding & Genomics
Research Article
Zdroj: Animal Microbiome
Animal Microbiome, Vol 3, Iss 1, Pp 1-18 (2021)
Animal Microbiome 3 (2021) 1
Animal Microbiome, 3(1)
ISSN: 2524-4671
Popis: Background Conventional pig housing and management conditions are associated with gastrointestinal pathophysiology and disease susceptibility in early life. Developing new strategies to reduce both therapeutic and prophylactic antibiotic use is urgent for the sustainable swine production globally. To this end, housing methodology providing effective environmental enrichment could be a promising alternative approach to reduce antibiotic usage, as it has been proven to positively influence pig welfare and immune status and reduce susceptibility to infections. It is, however, poorly understood how this enriched housing affects systemic and local pulmonary immune status and gut microbiota colonization during early life. In the present study, we compared the effects of two housing conditions, i.e., conventional housing: (CH) versus enriched housing (EH), on immune status and gut microbiota from birth until 61 days of age. Results The expected benefits of enrichment on pig welfare were confirmed as EH pigs showed more positive behaviour, less aggression behaviour during the weaning transition and better human animal relation during the post weaning phase. Regarding the pigs’ immune status, EH pigs had higher values of haemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume in haematological profiles and higher percentages of T cells and cytotoxic T cells in peripheral blood. Furthermore, EH pigs showed higher ex vivo secretion of IL1ß and TNF-α after lipopolysaccharide stimulation of whole blood than CH pigs. The structure of the developing faecal microbiota of CH and EH pigs significantly differed as early as day 12 with an increase in the relative abundance of several bacterial groups known to be involved in the production of short chain fatty acids, such as Prevotella_2, Christensenellaceae_R_7_group and Ruminococcus gauvreauii group. Furthermore, the main difference between both housing conditions post weaning was that on day 61, CH pigs had significantly larger inter-individual variation of ileal and colonic microbiota than EH pigs. In addition to housing, other intrinsic factors (e.g., sex) were associated with gut microbiota development and immune competence. Conclusions In addition to the known welfare benefits for pigs, environmentally enriched housing also positively drives important aspects of the development of the immune system and the establishment of gut microbiota in early life. Consequently, EH may contribute to increasing productivity of pigs and reducing antibiotic use.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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