Schwein Press

  • Intestinal health: organic acids and pure botanicals can be extremely useful

    The impact that a molecule can have on animal metabolism and physiological functions is strictly linked to different modes of action of the molecule itself. These activities must be studied and well known to use the nutrition favoring both animal health and production effectively.
  • Thymol as an Adjuvant to Restore Antibiotic Efficacy and Reduce Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence Gene Expression in Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Strains

    The aim of this study was to investigate the potential adjuvant effect of thymol to re-establish antibiotic efficacy against highly resistant ETEC field strains. Secondly, we evaluated the modulation of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes.
  • Dual Antimicrobial Effect of Medium-Chain Fatty Acids against an Italian Multidrug Resistant Brachyspira hyodysenteriae Strain

    In this study we tested four antibiotics (tylosin, lincomycin, doxycycline, and tiamulin) and medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA; hexanoic, octanoic, decanoic, and dodecanoic acid) against an Italian field strain of B. hyodysenteriae and the ATCC 27164 strain as reference.
  • Phenol-Rich Botanicals Modulate Oxidative Stress and Epithelial Integrity in Intestinal Epithelial Cells

    The aim of this study was to screen the activity of different sources of phenol compounds on intestinal oxidation and barrier integrity in vitro.
  • Assessing intestinal health. In vitro and ex vivo gut barrier models of farm animals: benefits and limitations

    The concept of “gut health" is not well defined, but this concept has begun to play a very important role in the field of animal science. However, a clear definition of GIT health and the means by which to measure it are lacking. In vitro and ex vivo models can facilitate these studies, creating well-controlled and repeatable conditions to understand how to improve animal gut health.
  • Development of an in vitro model to study intestinal integrity during an E. coli K88 challenge

    Post-weaning diarrhoea is а striking issue of the pig industry and its onset is primarily associated with Escherichia coli К88 (Е. coli). То assess the effectiveness of bioactives in preventing the damages exerted bу the pathogen, the aim of this study was to set-up an in vitro model to mimic an Е. coli challenge on intestinal cells.
  • From acidifiers to intestinal health enhancers: how organic acids can improve growth efficiency of pigs

    Organic acids have been used for a long time to support pig growth particularly at weaning, and more recently have become the number one alternative to growth promoters to improve the production efficiency of pigs.
  • Evaluation of microencapsulated organic acids and botanicals on growth performance of nursery and growing-finishing pigs

    Providing microencapsulated organic acids and botanicals during the nursery phase increased G:F in the early and overall nursery phase, but there was no effect on overall wean-to-finish performance.
  • Single components of botanicals and nature-identical compounds as a non-antibiotic strategy to ameliorate health status and improve performance in poultry and pigs

    The use of NIC allows us to properly combine pure compounds, according to the target to achieve. Thus, they represent a promising non-antibiotic tool to allow better intestinal health and general health status, thereby leading to improved growth performance.
  • Thymol and Carvacrol Downregulate the Expression of Salmonella typhimurium Virulence Genes during an In Vitro Infection on Caco-2 Cells

    A real-time PCR study highlighted a significant downregulation of the main virulence genes of Salmonella (hilA, prgH, invA, sipA, sipC, sipD, sopB, sopE2). These findings indicate that thymol and carvacrol could be good candidates for the control of Salmonella typhimurium in pigs.
  • Thymol modulates the endocannabinoid system and gut chemosensing of weaning pigs

    The purposes of this study were to investigate the presence of markers of the endocannabinoid system and the chemosensing system in the pig gut and, second, to determine if thymol modulates these markers.
  • Cannabinoid and Cannabinoid-Related Receptors in the Myenteric Plexus of the Porcine Ileum

    The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has opened the door to novel therapeutical approaches targeting cancer, pain, anxiety, stress, and inflammatory diseases. The ECS is ubiquitously expressed in almost all members of Animalia, but its precise localization outside the central nervous system is still under investigation.
  • Tributyrin differentially regulates inflammatory markers and modulates goblet cells number along the intestinal tract segments of weaning pigs

    Butyric acid is widely used in pig production as feed additive to improve growth performance at weaning, based on its intestinal health-promoting action. The aim of this study was to evaluate the intestinal architecture and expression of inflammatory cytokines and tight junctions (TJ) markers in weaning piglets fed with tributyrin, either free or microencapsulated, as dietary source of butyric acid.
  • Dietary inclusion of low doses of microencapsulated zinc oxide affects inflammatory cytokine and tight junction protein expression in the ileum of piglets

    Aim of this study was to investigate the expression of inflammation markers and tight junctions protein (TJ) in the ileum of piglets fed with low doses of microencapsulated zinc oxide (ZnO; Zincoret, Vetagro SpA, Italy) in comparison with either a pharmaceutical dose of free ZnO (positive control) or a negative control.
  • Microencapsulated lysine and low-protein diets: effects on performance, carcass characteristics and nitrogen excretion in heavy growing -finishing pigs

    Two studies were conducted to assess the effects of dietary protein and Lys reduction on growth performance, carcass quality, N excretion, and plasma N profile in growing-finishing pigs from 35 to 180 kg.