Laminaria japonica Polyascchride Improves Protein Metabolism of Weaned Piglets.

Post-weaning diarrhea is one of the most common diseases in piglets, which will seriously affect the growth performance of weaned piglets and may even cause their death. LJP has been proven to improve the growth performance of weaned piglets. Protein metabolism is very important for growth, but there is little research on protein metabolism in weaned piglets by LJP. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of supplementing different levels of LJP (0, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) in the diet on protein metabolism in weaned piglets. A total of 120 piglets with similar initial body wight (6.13±0.21 kg) and age (21±1 day) were randomly assigned into 4 groups, each group had 5 replicates of 6 piglets. Four different levels of LJP (0, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) were added to the feed of four groups of piglets and kept for 21 days. The results showed that the content of total serum proteins was significantly increased in piglets supplemented with 200 and 400 mg/kg LJP and the content of albumin was significantly increased in piglets supplemented with 400 mg/kg LJP (p<0.05), compared with the control group. In conclusion, the addition of 200 and 400 mg/kg of LJP to the ration increased protein content in the serum and contributed to the growth and health of weaned piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]