ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1704019
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Horizons in Gut Microbiome Research for Enhancing Livestock ProductivityView all 20 articles
Effects of dietary Proanthocyanidins supplementation on growth performance, immune function, antioxidant capacity and gut microbiota in weaned pigs
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Animal Nutrition, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
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Proanthocyanidins (PRO), as a type of most consumed dietary polyphenolic compounds, exhibited diverse health-promoting properties due to their structure of abundant hydroxyl groups. However, the effects of dietary PRO supplementation on growth performance, immune function, antioxidant capacity, and gut microbiota in weaned piglets remains unexplored. In this study, eight hundred hybrid barrows of Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) 28-day-old piglets with an average body weight of 9.40 ± 0.14 kg were allocated randomly to five groups. Each group of piglets were continuously administered one of the five dietary treatments: the basal diet (control group) or the basal diet supplemented with PRO at different doses of 15 mg, 30 mg, 60 mg, or 120 mg per kilogram feed for 28 days, respectively. On d 29, dietary PRO treatment showed a dose-dependent improvement in average daily gain (ADG, linear, p = 0.042), average daily feed intake (ADFI, linear, p = 0.078), and the digestibility of nutrients, including dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (EE), and gross energy (GE) (p < 0.05). Compared with the control group, PRO linearly reduced (p < 0.05) concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6. In contrast, the levels of serum immunoglobulins such as IgG, IgA, and IgM, as well as activities of GSH and T-AOC was linearly elevated (p < 0.05) by PRO supplementation in piglet diet. Additionally, dietary supplementation of 30 mg/kg PRO not merely increased the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria such as Fournierella, Oscillospira, NK4A214_group and UCG-005 at the species level, but also tended to elevate (p < 0.1) the concentration of butyrate in the rectum. These results suggest that PRO-containing feed might be a potential dietary strategy for improving gut homeostasis and overall health of weaned pigs.
Keywords: pro, growth performance, Nutrient digestibility, Immune function, Gut Microbiota
Received: 12 Sep 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qiao, Liu, Xie, Yu, Luo, Zheng, Mao, Yan and He. 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: Jun He, hejun8067@163.com
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