Swine are susceptible to high thermal loads that can cause acute and chronic illness and, if severe enough, mortality. It has been estimated that heat stress (HS) may cost the US swine industry over $300 million annually and global loses are in the billions (St-Pierre et al., 2003). Previously, we have reported that HS causes major reductions in pig performance (Pearce et al., 2013), alters intestinal function and integrity, and increases endotoxin load (Pearce et al., 2012). However, HS-induced feed intake reductions may partially explain some of the phenotype observed. Therefore, we hypothesised that short term feed intake induction is a major contributor to HS induced changes in growing pig intestinal integrity.
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