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This study was conducted in two stages to investigate the potential of multi-enzyme supplementation on the nutrient digestibility, growth performance, and gut microbial composition of pigs. In stage 1, effects of multi-enzyme complex (xylanase, α-amylase, β-glucanase, and protease) supplementation on the ileal and total tract dry matter (DM) digestibility of feed-stuffs were investigated with in vitro two-stage and three-stage enzyme incubation methods. A wide range of feed ingredients, namely, corn meal, wheat meal, soybean meal, fish meal, Oriental herbal extract, Italian rye-grass (IRG) and peanut hull were used as substrates. Supplementation of the multi-enzyme complex increased (P < 0.05) the digestibility of the Oriental herbal extract and corn meal. In stage 2, in vivo animal studies were performed to further investigate the effects of the dietary multi-enzyme complex on the nutrient utilization, growth performance, and fecal microbial composition of pigs. A total of 36 weaned pigs were fed corn- and soybean meal-based diets without (control) and with the multi-enzyme complex (treatment) for 6 weeks. Fecal samples were collected from 12 pigs to analyze the microbial communities by using DNA sequencing and bioinformatics tools. Multi-enzyme supplementation had no effect on apparent digestibility of nutrients and growth performance of pigs compared to control. Taxonomic analysis of the fecal samples indicated that the bacteria in both control and treatment samples predominantly belonged to Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. In addition, the proportion of the phylum Firmicutes was slightly higher in the treatment group. At the genus level, the abundance of Treponema and Barnesiella increased in the treatment group; whereas the numbers ofthe genera including Prevotella, Butyricicoccus, Ruminococcus and Succinivibrio decreased in the treatment group. These results suggest that multi-enzyme supplementation with basal diets have the potential to improve nutrient digestibility and modify microbial communities in the hind-gut of pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to verify genetic relationships between fatty acid composition (FAC) and genotypes of several genes ( FABP3 , HMGA1 , MC4R , IGF2 , and FABP4 ) using pig breeds. The effects of genetic variations on FAC of the longissimus muscle were statistically significant with additive and dominance effects. The polymorphisms of FABP3 and IGF2 had the largest effects on stearic (C18:0, P = 0.009) and γ-linoleic (C18:3n6, P = 0.039) acids, respectively, whereas HMGA1 and FABP4 did not show significances. The analysis revealed that MC4R was significantly associated with palmitoleic acid (C16:ln7) and MUFA. Allele frequencies of the genes examined in this analysis were significantly skewed or fixed in the Korean native pig (KNP), whereas the allele frequencies of the crossbreds tended to fall between those of the purebreds except that HMGA1 and FABP4 had approximately the same allele frequencies with Duroc and KNP, respectively. The polymorphisms found in this study could be used as genetic markers in breeding programs to simultaneously change proportions of fatty acids in muscle tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]