Dietary Pectic Oligosaccharide Administration Improves Growth Performance and Immunity in Weaned Pigs Infected by Rotavirus

Rotavirus infection is one of the main pathogenic causes of gastroenteritis and diarrhea in children and young animals. The present study aimed to determine whether dietary pectic oligosaccharide (POS) supplementation could improve the growth performance and immunity in weaned pigs infected by porcine rotavirus (PRV). Twenty-eight crossbred weaned galts were randomly divided into two groups fed basal diet with or without POS for 18 days. On the 15th day, PRV was orally infused to half of the pigs. ADFI, ADG, and F/G ratio were impaired by PRV infection in weaned pigs (P < 0.05). PRV challenge also induced diarrhea and enhanced serum levels of urea nitrogen (P < 0.05), MDA (P < 0.05), IgA (P < 0.05), and IgG (P = 0.08), rotavirus antibody levels in serum, jejunal, and ileal mucosa (P < 0.05), and IL-2 levels in the jejunal (P = 0.07) and ileal (P = 0.08) mucosa, but decreased digestive enzyme activities of the jejunal digesta (P < 0.05) and concentrations of sIgA, IL-4, and IFN-γ in the jejunal and ileal mucosa (P < 0.05) and serum T-AOC (P < 0.05) in the weaned pigs. POS administration could improve the growth performance of the weaned pigs (P < 0.05) and enhance the serum IgA level (P < 0.05), the lipase and tryptase activities of jejunal digesta (P < 0.05), and the sIgA, IL-4, and IFN-γ levels of jejunal and/or ileal mucosa (P < 0.05) in the weaned pigs. Furthermore, supplementing POS in diets could alleviate diarrhea and decreased growth performance in the weaned pigs orally infused by PRV (P < 0.05), increase serum, jejunal, and ileal rotavirus antibody levels (P < 0.05) and attenuate the effect of PRV challenge on serum T-AOC and concentrations of IgG and MDA (P < 0.05), lipase and tryptase activities in jejunal digesta (P < 0.05), and sIgA, IL-4, and IFN-γ levels in jejunal and/or ileal mucosa (P < 0.05) in the weaned pigs. These results suggest that dietary POS supplementation could improve growth performance, which was possibly because POS administration improved the immune function and the utilization of nutrients in the PRV-infected piglets. This offers a potential dietary intervention strategy against intestinal exposure to rotavirus in piglets.