Potential dietary feed additives with antibacterial effects and their impact on performance of weaned piglets: A meta-analysis

Publication date: Available online 1 May 2019Source: The Veterinary JournalAuthor(s): W. Vanrolleghem, S. Tanghe, S. Verstringe, G. Bruggeman, D. Papadopoulos, P. Trevisi, J. Zentek, S. Sarrazin, J. DewulfAbstractThis meta-analysis evaluated the use of potential dietary feed additives (pDFA) with antibacterial effects and their impact on the perfomance of weaned piglets. Twenty-three peer-reviewed in vivo studies, comprising 50 trials, were identified between January 2010 and January 2017. The pDFA in these studies could be grouped in 5 classes: antimicrobial peptides, chitosan, lysozyme, medium chain fatty acids/ triglycerides and plant extracts. Mixed-effect meta-analyses with type of pDFA as fixed effect were performed for the growth parameters ‘average daily gain’ (ADG) and ‘feed conversion ratio’ (FCR), which are the two most important and used economic performance parameters for farmers.For each class of pDFA, results of the meta-analysis showed significantly higher average daily gain in the group with pDFA compared to the negative control group, while no significant difference with the positive control group was observed. Furthermore, a positive effect on FCR was found, i.e. significantly less feed was needed to gain 1 kg of body weight in the group with pDFA compared to the negative control group. No significant differences with positive control groups were observed for each class of pDFA, except for plant extracts, where the FCR was also significantly reduc...
Source: The Veterinary Journal - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research