ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1646816
The study of anti-nutritional threshold of glycinin in piglets: impact on growth performance, nutrient digestion, allergic reaction, intestinal permeability and morphology
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
- 2Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-nutritional effects and sensitization threshold of purified glycinin on weaned piglets. In this experiment, forty-five 21-dayold weaned castrated piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) with the similar initial weight of 9.95±0.43kg were randomly divided into 5 groups with 9 replicates per group.Piglets in the control group were fed with the basal diet, but piglets in the experimental groups were fed with diets containing 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% purified glycinin based on the basal diet, respectively. After determination, the glycine content in the diets of each group was 0.704, 8.779, 16.857, 24.934, and 33.011 mg/g, respectively. The results showed that, compared with the control group, the average daily gain, average daily feed intake and the ratio of weight gain to feed intake of piglets were linearly and quadratically decreased by 2%, 3% and 4% glycinin addition in diets (p < 0.05). In addition, positive skin sensitization, the larger erythema diameter and the elevated specific immunoglobulin G titer were induced by glycinin inclusion (p<0.05). Besides, 2%, 3% and 4% glycinin administration led to decreases in nutrient apparent metabolic ratio and digestive enzyme activities (p<0.05). Moreover, the content of HIS, diamine oxidase and D-lactic acid in small intestine were increased in response to 3% and 4% glycinin supplementation (p<0.05). In addition, the reduced D-xylose concentration and the damaged intestinal morphology of piglets were induced by 2%, 3% and 4% glycinin inclusion (p < 0.05). The above results indicated that glycinin inclusion with the dose over 1% can trigger allergenic effects including the larger erythema diameter, the elevated specific immunoglobulin G titer and the elevated content of HIS and D-lactic acid, whereas glycinin inclusion with the dose over 2% can induce some anti-nutrition reaction containing the decreased nutrient apparent metabolic ratio and digestive enzyme activities as well as the damaged small intestinal morphology. In addition, the information mentioned above implied that the sensitization threshold of glycinin administration in piglets was 8.779 mg/g and the anti-nutrition threshold was 16.857mg/g.
Keywords: glycinin, piglets, anti-nutritional threshold, Allergic reaction, intestinal permeability
Received: 14 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Fu, Zhang, Zhong, Bao and Sun. 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: Zewei Sun, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
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