Functional bioactive substance improves the growth performance, antioxidant capacity and immune function of growth retardation pigs

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of composited functional bioactive substances on the growth performance and immune function of growth retardation (GR) pigs. Twenty-four 42-day-old GR pigs were fed with basal diet containing 0 or 0.5% composited functional bioactive substances package (FP) for 21 days. The results showed that dietary supplementation with FP decreased feed:gain ratio, increased the relative and absolute weight of the liver (P < 0.05). Supplementation with FP decreased serum alkaline phosphatase and malondialdehyde, but increased aspartic acid, cysteine, arginine, proline and taurine concentrations, as well as serum superoxide dismutase and catalase activities (p < 0.05). FP treatment increased all determined cytokines (IL-1 beta, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, GM-CSF, IFN-gamma, TGF-beta 1, TNF-alpha) concentrations in serum compared with the control treatment (p < 0.05). These findings indicate that functional bioactive substances can improve feed conversion rate, serum anti-oxidant capacity and immunity and can be as effective growth promoter in the GR piglets.