Effects of health challenge with e. coli K88+ in piglets in the nursery phase

• Grant number: 20/05069-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2020
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Cesar Augusto Pospissil Garbossa
• Grantee: Ana Clara Rodrigues de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The nursery phase is characterized by the high level of health challenge, due to several stressful, environmental and health factors, resulting from modernization and intensification of the productive system. The objective of this project is to evaluate the effect of the health challenge, using strains of Escherichia coli K88+, in piglets in the nursery phase. The experiment will use a randomized block design (stalls) with twelve replicates and two treatments, in which Treatment 1 (T1) will correspond to the animals that will receive the control diet without health challenge, and Treatment 2 (T2) will correspond to the animals that will receive the control diet with health challenge. Ninety six piglets will be used, weaned at 21 days of age, during the nursery phase, with a total period of 42 days of experiment, which is divided into three periods according to the feed changes. On the eighth, ninth and seventeenth day of the experiment, the T1 animals will receive 1 ml of saline. The T2 animals will receive 1 ml of the innocuous bacterial on the eighth and ninth day of the experiment, and 2 ml of the innocuous bacterial on the seventeenth. experiment day. The animals will be weighed weekly, and the amount of feed provided and leftovers will be evaluated daily in order to quantify daily weight gain, daily feed consumption and feed conversion. The analysis of the fecal score will be performed, twice a day, in all stalls, to calculate the incidence of diarrhea. At 11, 28 and 42 days of experiment, one animal from each stall will be slaughtered in order to analyze the blood count, integrity of the mucosa, bacterial colonies and volatile fatty acids. Finally, the economic impact assessment of the health challenge will be evaluated.