Rearing environment is a key factor in determining pig gut microbiota
Take Home Message: Piglets born and reared indoors have higher populations of lactobacilli than those born outdoors and reared indoors, which may improve gut health.
Rearing environment may affect the gut microbiota – and therefore the health – of pigs. But other factors, such as diet, and age, also play an important role.
So says Lucy Brunton, who led a team of researchers at Leeds University in trials to compare the numbers of four common groups of gut organisms – enterococci, Bacteroides spp, lactobacilli and coliforms – in faecal samples taken from pigs reared either indoors or outdoors.
The results showed that pigs reared exclusively indoors retained higher populations of lactobacilli than pigs reared outdoors. And this may confer a health benefit on indoor reared pigs,” Miss Brunton told delegates at this year’s British Society of Animal Science annual conference.
“Interestingly, asymptomatic C. difficile colonisation was common in young pigs but decreased with age. Similar findings have been reported in humans.”
The bacterial populations present in the porcine gut play an important role in pig health. And a number of factors may influence these populations including diet, medication and environment. “So to identify what effects rearing environments have on the gut microbiota was our aim.
“The presence of three zoonotic bacteria – Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium difficile, and Verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 – was also assessed to determine whether rearing environment might influence the threat of zoonotic infections,” she added.
Piglets were farrowed either outdoors or indoors and at four weeks of age all piglets were weaned indoors where they remained until slaughter. Faecal samples were collected from 12 indoor pigs and 12 outdoor pigs at four, seven, 14 and 23 weeks of age.
“Considerable variation was observed in the populations of the common gut bacteria between the different weeks. But there were few statistically significant differences between indoor and outdoor samples,” said Miss Brunton.
“There were no significant differences in the occurrence of zoonotic pathogens between environments. Minimal numbers of C. jejuni and VTEC O157 were detected, but a number of samples were positive for C. difficile and these numbers decreased with age.”
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