PSII-16 Effects of Oligosaccharide-based Polymer on Blood Profiles in Weanling Pigs Experimentally Infected with a Pathogenic E. coli

Abstract The objective of this experiment was to investigate dietary supplementation of oligosaccharide-based polymer on blood profiles of weaned pigs experimentally infected with a pathogenic F18 Escherichia coli (E. coli). Forty-eight pigs (7.23 ± 1.11 kg BW) were individually housed in disease containment rooms and randomly allotted to one of four treatments with 12 replicate pigs per treatment. The four dietary treatments were a nursery basal diet (control), and 3 additional diets supplemented with 50 mg/kg Mecadox (AGP), 10 or 20 mg/kg of oligosaccharide-based polymer. The experiment lasted 18 d [7 d before and 11 d after the first inoculation (d 0)]. The doses of F18 E. coli inoculum were 1010 cfu/3 mL oral dose daily for 3 days. Blood samples were collected before E. coli inoculation (d 0), and on d 2, 5, 8, and 11 post-inoculation (PI). Total and differential blood cell count were analyzed by CBC test. All data were analyzed by ANOVA using the PROC MIXED of SAS with pig as the experimental unit. Supplementation of oligosaccharide-based polymer linearly (P < 0.05) reduced white blood cell counts, neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils on d 2 PI, and neutrophils on d 5 PI, compared with the control. No differences were observed in total and differential white blood cell counts among AGP and two oligosaccharide-based polymer treatments except that pigs fed with AGP had greater (P < 0.05) lymphocytes on d 2 PI compared with pigs fed with oligosaccharide-based polymer diets. Supplementation of low dose oligosaccharide-based polymer or AGP reduced (P < 0.05) red blood cell count and packed cell volume on d 2 PI, whereas inclusion of high dose oligosaccharide-based polymer or AGP reduced (P < 0.05) packed cell volume on d 5 PI, compared with the control. In conclusion, supplementation of oligosaccharide-based polymer may alleviate the systemic inflammation caused by F18 E. coli infection.