ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Dietary Fibre Supplementation in Late Gestation Modulates Gut Microbiota and Improves Reproductive Performance and Colostrum Quality in Sows
Provisionally accepted
- Anyou Biotechnology Group Co., Ltd, Suzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study investigated the effects of dietary fibre levels during late gestation on sow performance, colostrum quality, constipation, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, gut microbiota, and piglet growth. Forty pregnant sows (Landrace × Yorkshire, parity 2 or 4) were assigned to a low-fibre (LF, 5.2%) or high-fibre (HF, 7.7%) diet from day 85 of gestation until parturition, followed by a uniform lactation diet. HF sows exhibited improved piglet vitality (P < 0.05). Colostrum protein, total solids, IgA, and IgM were higher in HF sows (P < 0.05). Cord blood analysis showed reduced glucose and IL-10, and increased eNOS (P < 0.05). HF sows had higher faecal scores, lower constipation rates (P < 0.05), and increased digestibility of crude fibre, ADF, and NDF, although protein digestibility decreased (P < 0.05). Gut microbiota analysis revealed increased Lactobacillus, Lachnospiraceae_XPB1014_group, and Methanobrevibacter, and decreased Treponema, Prevotellaceae_UCG-001, and Escherichia-Shigella. Piglets from HF sows had higher average daily gain and weaning weight (P < 0.05). Correlation analysis indicated positive associations of Lactobacillus, Terrisporobacter, and Lachnospiraceae_XPB1014_group with reproductive traits, while Phascolarctobacterium and X-Eubacterium_ruminantium_group were linked to piglet growth. Treponema and Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group were negatively associated with constipation. These results demonstrate that increasing dietary fibre during late gestation enhances sow gut health and colostrum quality, and promotes piglet growth through modulation of gut microbiota and improved fibre digestibility.
Keywords: Fibre, Reproductive performance, colostrum quality, Constipation, intestinal flora, eNOS, Piglet, Correlation
Received: 17 Jul 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cong, Liu, Xia, Li and Hung. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guanglei Cong, 760997313@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.