PSXII-18 The impact of maternal fermented feed on the gut health of sows and piglets during lactation.

Abstract Fermented feed is a gut microbiota-targeting diet containing live probiotics and their metabolites, which benefit the gut and overall health of the host. With growing evidence that maternal gut microbiota directly shapes offspring microbial colonization and metabolic programming, nutritional interventions during lactation have emerged as a strategic approach to break the cycle of intergenerational dysbiosis. In this study, we investigated the effects of probiotic fermented feed with Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium supplementation in lactating sows on offspring performance. Sixty sows were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments from 7 days prepartum until weaning: control (CON) group (control diet, n = 20), MFD group (basal diet + 10% fermented feed, n = 20), and probiotic (PROB) group (basal diet + equal amounts of B. subtilis and E. faecalis, n = 20). For the PROB group, drinking water was supplemented with 3.4 g/kg B. subtilis powder and 1.3 g/kg E. faecium powder. Sow and piglet feces were obtained on days 0, 7, 14 and 21 (with the count beginning 7 days before parturition). MFD supplementation significantly increased sows’ average daily feed intake (P=0.01) and milk yield (P< 0.05). Piglets in the MFD group exhibited significantly greater weaning weight gain (P< 0.05) and reduced diarrhea incidence (P=0.01) compared to CON. Gut microbial α-diversity in piglets progressively increased, with MFD demonstrating significantly higher diversity than both CON and PROB at days 14 and 21. Microbial community analysis revealed a distinct separation between sow and piglet microbiota, with greater similarity among sow microbiomes than piglet microbiomes, suggesting MFD exerts differential modulatory effects. Further analyses of intestinal differential bacteria taxa, short-chain fatty acid (SCFAs) profiles, and serum indexes at day 21 showed notable findings. LEfSe analysis identified significant enrichment of Lactobacillus in both sows and piglets from the MFD group. Targeted metabolomics confirmed the elevated level of SCFAs in MFD compared to other groups. In vitro anaerobic fermentation technology was used to assess dietary fiber utilization capacity. The results showed that the fiber utilization ability of both sows and piglets in the MFD group was significantly enhanced, indicating that MFD may improve the maturity of gut microbes and thus facilitate fiber utilization. Furthermore, MFD significantly increased serum prolactin, IgG, IgM, and IL-10 (P < 0.05), and decreased TNF-α of sows (P < 0.05). MFD also increased offspring serum growth hormone, and insulin-like growth factor concentrations, and reduced serum diamine oxidase and endotoxin levels versus CON (P< 0.05). The comprehensive beneficial effects were more pronounced in MFD than in PROB. Therefore, these findings collectively demonstrate that maternal microbial-fermented diet supplementation drives neonatal gut microbiota development and promotes intestinal health.