Addition of fructooligosaccharides and alfalfa hay to the diet of weaned piglets on the microbiota and the small intestine morphology

The goal of this work was to verify the effect of the fructooligossaccharide prebiotic (FOS) addition in the diet containing varying levels of alfalfa hay, on the microbiology and intestinal morphology of weaned piglets. It was used 72 piglets, crossed, both sexes, with initial weight of 5.95 ± 0.73 Kg, with approximate age of 21 days. It was evaluated the treatment: T1 – Basal feed + 0% FOS; T2 – Basal feed + 0.3% FOS; T3 – Feed with 5% of alfalfa + 0% FOS; T4 – Feed with 5% of alfalfa + 0.3% FOS; T5 – Feed with 10% of alfalfa + 0% FOS; Feed with 10% of alfalfa + 0.3% FOS. In the end of the experimental period one piglet of each replication was slaughtered for the collection of sample aiming to analyze Salmonela sp. and coliformes and intestinal morphology (height of villus and depht of crypt). The analysis for coliformes didn’t show statistic difference among the levels of FOS and alfalfa hay. It wasn’t find Salmonella sp. colonies in the samples. No difference was observe in the crypt depht (P>0.05) among the treatments. The height of villus and the relation of height of villus per depht of crypt, the group without the addition of FOS didn’t show difference (P>0.05), however, the group supplemented with 0.3% of FOS showed a significant improvement (P