Effects of dietary supplementation with uridine monophosphate on performance and intestinal morphology of weanling piglets1

As the richest nucleotide in milk of sows, uridine monophosphate (UMP) is limited in feedstuffs. The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with UMP into starter diets for weanling piglets on intestinal morphometry. Forty-eight piglets (Landrace × Large White × Duroc) were weaned at 21 d and randomly assigned to 2 groups, the Control and UMP groups, with 6 replicates in each group and 4 piglets per replicate, and were fed 1 of the following diets for 14 d: a conventional starter diet (CSD) and CSD+UMP (0.07%), respectively. Six piglets from each treatment group were sacrificed on d 14. Growth performance and intestinal morphology of the piglets were measured. Compared with the control group, significant increases in UMP group were observed for ADFI (P < 0.05) and ADG (P < 0.01); piglets fed the UMP-supplemented diets obviously decreased F:G (P < 0.01). Dietary supplementation with UMP decreased diarrhea frequency markedly (23.26% vs. 9.17%, P < 0.05). As for the intestinal morphometry, both jejunum villus height (VH, P = 0.077) and villus height:crypt depth (VH:CD, P = 0.015) were higher in the UMP group, along with ileum VH (P = 0.026) and VH:CD (P = 0.004). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with UMP during the immediate postweaning improved the growth performance of the piglets and may have a positive influence on intestinal morphology development.