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Studies on the health impact of Agrimonia procera in piglets.

ABSTRACT: The weaning period is critical for stress-related diseases and infections. Currently, large amounts of therapeutic antimicrobials are used to treat infections in the livestock production, especially in piglets. Phytogenic feed additives could provide a useful alternative. We hypothesize, that components in agrimonia species which have been used successfully in humans to treat gastrointestinal infections could also improve the health of piglets. We investigated the effects of Agrimonia procera (AP) on the growth performance of piglets and cytokine expression in isolated porcine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).Here we show that piglets that received a diet with 0.56 g/kg AP for 6 weeks tended to ingest more food (+5.1%; P < 0.10), and were characterized by a higher nitrogen retention (+9.6%, P < 0.05) than the control group without AP treatment. Data from a second experiment reveal that piglets fed a diet with 0.87 g/kg AP for 6 weeks had an improved food conversion ratio (1.46 ± 0.04) compared to those that received none (1.54 ± 0.08) or 8.7 g/kg AP (1.60 ± 0.08) with their diets (P < 0.001). However, the food intake, daily weight gain and dry matter of feces were not affected by the AP treatment. Treatment of PBMC for 1 and 6 h with AP extract (APE) reduced the mRNA abundance of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)? in cells challenged with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) but not in cells without LPS stimulation (P < 0.05). The lower mRNA expression of TNF? was accompanied by a trend towards a lower release of TNF? from these cells (P?=?0.067). After the treatment of PBMC with APE for 6 h, the relative mRNA concentration of interleukin (IL)-1? declined (P < 0.05), whereas that of IL-10 remained unchanged. Treatment of LPS-challenged PBMC for 20 h with varying concentrations of APE did not reveal any effect on cytokine expression and TNF? release.The results indicate that low dosages of AP may improve the growth performance of piglets and seem to exert antiinflammatory effects in porcine immune cells challenged with LPS.

SUBMITTER: Graber T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4173061 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Studies on the health impact of Agrimonia procera in piglets.

Gräber Tobias T Kluge Holger H Granica Sebastian S Horn Gert G Brandsch Corinna C Stangl Gabriele I GI

BMC veterinary research 20140909

<h4>Background</h4>The weaning period is critical for stress-related diseases and infections. Currently, large amounts of therapeutic antimicrobials are used to treat infections in the livestock production, especially in piglets. Phytogenic feed additives could provide a useful alternative. We hypothesize, that components in agrimonia species which have been used successfully in humans to treat gastrointestinal infections could also improve the health of piglets. We investigated the effects of A ...[more]

PMID: 25199877

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Because antibiotic use in livestock is assumed to contribute to the emerging public health crisis of antibiotic resistance, alternatives are required. Phytogenic additives are extensively studied due to their antibiotic properties. Components of Agrimonia species have been reported as candidate antimicrobials that possess antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. We studied the impact of Agrimonia procera (AP) on the growth of selected strains of gut bacteria, the effect of AP on the mRNA abundance of genes involved in inflammation and bacterial defense in a colon carcinoma cell line, the effect of AP in piglets challenged with lipopolysaccharides, and the effect of AP on the growth performance of healthy piglets. RESULTS:The in vitro growth rate of different bacteria strains was negatively affected by AP, especially in Pediococcus pentosaceus and all tested E. coli strains. Stimulation of Caco-2 cells with TNF? resulted in elevated mRNA expression of CXCL1, IL-8 and GPX2. After pretreatment of cells with AP, stimulation of Caco-2 cells with TNF? still resulted in elevated mRNA expression of CXCL1 and IL-8 at all measured points in time. However, mRNA expression in AP-pretreated cells was lower after 6 h and 24 h. In addition, expression of DEFB1 and GPX2 was significantly elevated after TNF? stimulation. In vivo, application of lipopolysaccharides induced significantly increased animal body temperatures. Piglets pretreated with AP prior to lipopolysaccharide application showed a faster and larger increase in body temperature than controls. In addition, piglets pretreated with AP appeared to release more TNF? than controls. In healthy piglets, AP treatment had no impact on growth performance parameters. Fecal dry matter and total plasma antioxidant capacity tended to be higher in piglets treated with AP than in control piglets (P?=?0.055 and P?=?0.087, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:AP has antimicrobial effects in vitro and stimulated the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in Caco-2 cells. The additive had no effect on growth in healthy piglets but increased the immune response in LPS-treated animals. In addition, AP appeared to have antioxidative effects in vivo. Therefore, AP merits testing as a future alternative to antibiotics in animal husbandry.

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Studies on the health impact of Agrimonia procera in piglets.

Publications

Studies on the health impact of Agrimonia procera in piglets.

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