Low birthweight piglets suffer from impaired postnatal development that negatively affects organ function, bodyweight, and health at vulnerable life stages. This leads to increased disease susceptibility and mortality, especially in male piglets. The amino acid glutamine has been reported to regulate pathways known to influence tissue growth and immune markers of stress, and glutamine supplementation during weaning and a challenge with lipopolysaccharide have been shown to improve piglet health and organ development. However, there are no studies reporting the potential of glutamine supplementation during the suckling period to improve low birthweight piglet health and organ development postsupplementation. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of glutamine supplementation compared with an isonitrogenous alanine control on growth during the supplementation period (1 to 12 d of age), and the potential effects after supplementation on growth (13 to 61 d of age), weaning (27 to 32 d of age), and the immune system after challenge by lipopolysaccharide (55 d of age) in male low and normal birthweight piglets. Results of the study indicate that glutamine supplementation did not improve piglet growth; however, it moderately improved immune markers of stress during weaning and reduced plasma TNF-α levels during a lipopolysaccharide challenge.

Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.