The use of probiotics in swine: an alternative for preventing diseases

Resumen

The use of probiotics is an alternative to the therapeutic treat-ment of pathological problems in pigs. The source of many of these disorders lies in an alteration of the intestinal microbiota that may be associated with management changes, such as weaning, since the passage from a liquid to a solid diet besides the suppression of the mother’s immune contribution constitute the beginning of any of these alterations.The mechanisms of action of the probiotic strains are based on competitive exclusion phenomena between these and the invading pathogens, the stimulation of the immune response, as well as the optimization of the use of the nutrients received through the diet.This study aims to make a first approach to the knowledge of the use of probiotics in the porcine species. For that purpose, a series of experimental tests were designed to be carried out in livestock farms that house the different stages of production (lactation and transition), in order to determine the benefits they bring, such as improvement of production rates or decrease in classic medical treatment.The said components were administrated by means of the for-mulation of a commercial fermented feed that incorporates these ingredients and that was applied in the aforementioned phases. For sampling, different moments were established according to the objectives set.The results obtained in the trials conclude that the use of product tested can have positive effects on piglet in peri-weaning by reduc-ing the possible inflammatory effects of the lipopolysaccharides of the Gram-negative bacteria and also increased the natural immune response against the Gram-positive bacteria. Finally, the integrity of the intestinal mucosa was favoured, as seems to be inferred from the increase in the height of the intestinal