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The present study investigated the innate immune response in vitro to determine porcine neonate responses with Toll-like receptor (TLR)2 ligand (Pam3Cys) or TLR9 ligand (CpG) and compared these with adults. We identified the same phenotypically defined dendritic cell (DC) subsets and DC proportions in porcine neonate and adult blood by flow cytometry, which were plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs): CD14 - CD4 + CD172a + CADM1 - ) and conventional DCs (cDCs), being further divided into a cDC1 (CD14 - CD4 - CD172a low CADM1 + ) and a cDC2 (CD14 - CD4 - CD172a + CADM1 + ) subset. With neonatal cells, the TLR2 ligand induced a stronger TNF expression in monocytes and pDCs, and a stronger CD80/86 upregulation in cDC1, when compared to adult cells. Furthermore, in neonatal mononuclear cells TLR9 ligand was more potent at inducing IL12p40 mRNA expression. These results indicate clear responses of porcine neonatal antigen presenting cells after TLR2 and TLR9 stimulation, suggesting that corresponding ligands could be promising candidates for neonatal adjuvant application., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Weaning of piglets causes stress due to environmental, behavioral, and nutritional stressors and can lead to postweaning diarrhea and impaired gut development. The diet changes experienced during weaning require extensive adaptation of the digestive system. A well-developed piglet that had creep-feed experience before weaning performs better after weaning. In the current study, the effect of providing sow-fed piglets with a supplemental nutrient-dense complex milk replacer (NDM) on gut development and growth performance was studied. Litters of sows with similar parities (3.6 ± 0.8) and similar numbers of live born piglets (13.5 ± 0.3) were assigned to 1 of 2 groups: 1 group of piglets had ad libitum access to NDM from Day 2 through 21 after birth, whereas the other group was used as controls. Nutrient-dense complex milk replacer-fed piglets were shown to be significantly heavier after 21 d of supplementation compared with the control piglets. At Day 21, 3 piglets from each litter were euthanized for morphological and functional analyses of the intestinal tract. The small intestines of NDM-fed piglets had significantly higher weights (g) as well as significantly higher relative weight:length ratios (g//cm) compared with the small intestines of control piglets ( < 0.05). Morphometric analysis demonstrated that villi length and numbers of goblet cells did not differ between groups. However, NDM-fed piglets had deeper crypts ( < 0.001) and an increased expression of the cell-proliferation marker proliferating cell nuclear antigen in crypts ( < 0.05), suggesting higher cell-proliferation rates. The gene encoding IGF-1 showed a tendency to higher gene expression in the jejunum from NDM-fed piglets ( = 0.07) compared with the jejunum from control piglets, suggesting that IGF-1 might be involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and intestinal growth. Finally, as a result of dietary fiber in NDM, piglets showed significantly increased concentrations of metabolic fermentation products. This suggests differences in metabolic activity in the colon between treatment groups. In conclusion, providing sow-fed piglets with NDM before weaning stimulates intestinal proliferation, leading to increased circular growth. Nutrient-dense complex milk replacer supplementation might, therefore, help piglets through the transition period at weaning by increased BW and increased capacity for uptake of nutrients.

The purpose of this study was to test whether dietary spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) in early-weaned piglets prevents small intestinal villus atrophy by trophic or protective activity. Fifty-four weaned, 18-day-old piglets were used to determine the effect of dietary SDPP on small intestinal villus length, crypt depth, enterocyt mitotic activity and brush border enzyme activities during the first week after weaning. The piglets were offered a diet containing either 8% SDPP or 8% casein. At 2 and 7 days after weaning, piglets were anaesthetized to provide samples of the small intestinal wall and killed immediately afterwards. There were no differences in daily gain and daily feed intake between the two dietary treatments. At day 2 after weaning, all piglets showed a marked reduction in villus height when compared with baseline values. In all piglets, small intestinal enterocyte mitotic activity had decreased by day 2 and was increased again on day 7. There were no significant effects of dietary SDPP on small intestinal villus length, crypt depth and enterocyt mitotic activity. This indicates that SDPP has no trophic effect on the small intestinal mucosa and that it does not protect against the damaging effect on the small intestinal villi that is associated with the process of weaning. There was no effect of SDPP on lactase-, sucrase- or maltase-specific activities that are a measure of the digestive function of the small intestine. It can be concluded that SDPP versus casein has no effect on small intestinal morphology and disaccharidase activities in early weaned piglets kept under low infection pressure.

The hypothesis tested in this study was that the reported beneficial effects of spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) on piglet post-weaning performance and health are associated with a trophic effect on small intestinal mucosa. At 24 days of age, the piglets of seven sows were assigned to one of three treatment groups. One group continued to be suckled. The other two groups were weaned and offered a diet containing either 15 per cent SDPP or casein. From each treatment group, one piglet was anaesthetised and samples were taken from the small intestinal wall at 26, 28 and 31 days of age. There were no significant effects of SDPP versus casein on villus length. On average, there was less mitotic activity in the SDPP -fed piglets than in those fed casein on days 4 and 7 after weaning. As less mitotic activity leads to less immature enterocytes, this may provide a mechanism for the reported beneficial effects of SDPP on performance and health., (Copyright 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.)

Diseases are often thought to result from a single cause. Although this is sometimes the case, e.g. with a highly virulent infection such as Classical Swine Fever (CSF), more often clinical disease in swine herds results from multiple predisposing factors. This is especially true in modern intensive pig husbandry, in which the role of highly infectious diseases is limited to (nonetheless devastating) outbreaks. More important nowadays are diseases, although associated with an agent, without a clear pathogenesis. The emphasis in disease control thus far has been on treatment, eradication and prevention. This has been achieved by focusing attention on husbandry factors, such as climate, housing, hygiene, management, and nutrition. Although this approach has been successful for a number of diseases, several health problems are persistent. There are strong indications that in the latter, intrinsic animal factors are important. Successful handling of these problems requires knowledge of the (patho)physiology of the pig. In this article, several characteristics of pig physiology associated with the occurrence of disease are described. It appears that the modern (fattening) pig is exceptional among other animal species in that its cardiovascular system is mismatched to its body weight. It is argued that this particular disposition causes relatively minor disturbances to have major consequences in the pig. This concept of pig physiology is central to the understanding of the hitherto poorly understood pathogenesis of several diseases, such as oedema disease.