Dietary lactulose supplementation improves grower-finisher pig performance and indices of gastrointestinal tract function

摘要

Concerns regarding the use of antibiotics in the pig industry have increased the interest in possible alternatives to antibiotics including prebiotics such as non-digestible oligosaccharides (Branner et al. 2004). Lactulose (4-0-(J-D-galactopyranosyl-D-fructose) is metabolised in the colon by the saccharolytic microbiota (Bird et al. 1990), and can influence the intestinal microbiota by stimulating the growth of Lactobacillus spp. in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Previous studies show that lactulose elicits a prebiotic effect (increased counts of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus) in pigs (Konstantinov et al. 2004). The hypothesis tested in this experiment was that lactulose supplementation in diets could improve grower-finisher pig performance and bacterial counts.