Weaning is a stressful period for piglets that often reduces growth performance and decreases intestinal health. Feed additives such as microencapsulated zinc oxide and lauric acid can be used to help pigs during weaning, but their effects are not well understood. In this study, pigs were fed diets containing microencapsulated zinc oxide, lauric acid, or a combination for 28 days after weaning. Pigs fed microencapsulated zinc oxide were 15% heavier than those fed control diet and tended to have stronger intestinal barrier (55%) than pigs fed a ration containing lauric acid. Also, tight junction proteins from pigs fed microencapsulated zinc oxide were increased compared to those without. Lauric acid had no effect on body weights. However, when combined with microencapsulated zinc oxide, lauric acid altered intestinal gene expression, particularly genes involved in immune function. These results show zinc oxide remains effective at improving nursery pig growth performance and combination with lauric acid alters transcriptome in the gut with similar improvements to growth performance.

Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.