Effect of feeding sodium butyrate in the late finishing period on Salmonella carriage, seroprevalence, and growth of finishing pigs

Walia, Kavita and Argüello, Hector and Lynch, Helen and Leonard, Finola C. and Grant, Jim and Yearsley, Dermot and Kelly, Sinead and Duffy, Geraldine and Gardiner, Gillian E. and Lawlor, Peadar G. (2016) Effect of feeding sodium butyrate in the late finishing period on Salmonella carriage, seroprevalence, and growth of finishing pigs. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 131. pp. 79-86. ISSN 0167-5877

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Abstract

Pork is an important source of human salmonellosis and low-cost on-farm control measures may provide a useful element in reducing the prevalence of this pathogen in food. This study investigated the effectiveness of dietary supplementation with sodium butyrate administered to finisher pigs for ∼4-weeks prior to slaughter to control Salmonella shedding on highly contaminated farms. Two trials (A and B) were conducted on two commercial pig farms, which had a history of high Salmonella seroprevalence. In both trials, pens (14 pens of 12 pigs/pen in Trial A and 12 pens of 12–17 pigs/pen in Trial B) were randomly assigned to a control (finisher feed without additive) or a treatment group (the same feed with 3 kg sodium butyrate/t) for 24–28 days, depending on the trial. Faeces were collected from each pig on days 0, 12 and 24/28, and blood, caecal digesta and ileocaecal/mesenteric lymph nodes were collected from the slaughterhouse. Pigs were weighed at the start and end of the trials, feed intake was recorded, and carcass quality parameters were recorded at slaughter. In Trial A, Salmonella shedding was reduced in the treatment compared to the control group at the end of the trial (30% versus 57% probability of detecting Salmonella in faeces, respectively; p < 0.001). This reflected the serology results, with detection of a lower seroprevalence in the treatment compared to the control group using the 20% optical density cut-off (69.5% versus 89%; p = 0.001). However, no effect on faecal shedding or seroprevalance was observed in Trial B, which may be explained by the detection of a concomitant infection with Lawsonia intracellularis. No significant differences in Salmonella recovery rates were observed in the caecal digesta or lymph nodes in either trial. Furthermore, feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) did not differ between groups (p > 0.05) in either trial. Numerical improvements in weight gain and FCE were found with sodium butyrate treatment, which gave a cost benefit of €0.04/kg of live-weight gain. Overall, results suggest that strategic feeding of sodium butyrate, at 3 kg/t of feed, to finishing pigs for 24–28 days prior to slaughter was effective in reducing Salmonella shedding and seroprevalance but perhaps only in the absence of co-infection with other pathogens. However, sodium butyrate supplementation at this rate did not influence intestinal carriage, nor did it reduce seroprevalence to below the cut-off used for the high Salmonella risk category in Ireland (50%), or significantly improve growth performance.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: This work was funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2007–2013, through the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM) administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Ireland. The sodium butyrate feed additive was provided by Nutriad, Kasterlee, Belgium. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the participating farmers, Vincent Rafter and his staff at Dawn Pork and Bacon, Grannagh, Waterford and Stephen Finn and his staff at Finns Abbatoir, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork in facilitating this study. This study could not have been performed without the expert technical assistance of Tomas Ryan and farm staff (Pat Magnier and John Walsh) of the Pig Development Department, Teagasc, Moorepark. The statistical advice provided by Dr. Edgar Garcia Manzanilla is gratefully acknowledged as is the assistance of staff and students in Teagasc during sampling in the abattoirs. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3400/3403
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Depositing User:	Admin SSL
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2022 23:08
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2023 20:00
URI:	http://repository-testing.wit.ie/id/eprint/4244

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