title: A between-experiment analysis of relationships linking dietary protein intake and post-weaning diarrhea in weanling pigs under conditions of experimental infection with an enterotoxigenic strain of Escherichia coli.
abstract: Numerous experiments have demonstrated that feeding a lower protein diet decreases protein fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and reduces the incidence of post-weaning diarrhea (PWD). However, there is a lack of holistic evidence underpinning the relationship between feeding a lower protein diet and PWD in relation to physiological responses and protein fermentation in the GIT. The scope of this article, therefore, will: (i) focus on the impact of dietary protein levels on selected indices of GIT health in weaned pigs without and with experimental infection with an enterotoxigenic strain of Escherichia coli; and (ii) attempt to conduct regression analysis to examine the relationships between dietary-origin protein intake, nitrogen fermentation indices, fecal consistency and the incidence of PWD. We used datasets generated from a series of four intensive experiments in weaned pigs. The collective results derived from these datasets indicate that restriction of daily protein intake to less than 60 g through feeding a lower protein diet for as little as 7 days after weaning reduced the incidence of PWD commensurate with a reduction in protein fermentation indices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea; School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Jung Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: Jae Cheol
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jaehong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Pluske
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018753:Diet, Protein-Restricted; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000150:complications*; D005285:Fermentation; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000378:metabolism*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013552:Swine; D014886:Weaning
chemical_list: D004044:Dietary Proteins; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: antimicrobial compounds; diet; pig; post-weaning diarrhea; protein