Effects of Dietary Probiotics as an Alternative to Antibiotics on Growth Performance, Biochemical Characteristics and Immune Response in Weaning Pigs

We evaluated the growth performance, biochemical characteristics, and immune responses in weaning pigs given a diet containing MR-1 (0.2%/feed) or antibiotics (0.1%/feed) for 45 days. In vitro study showed that MR-1 has antibacterial activity against a variety of strains of pathogenic bacteria, especially a strain of cattle-derived Escherichia coli K99 (E. coli K99) by agar diffusion assay. In the in vivo model, 0.2% MR-1-given group clearly ameliorated the weight gain and feed efficiency in the growth performance of weaning pigs compared to the basal diet group (p and production) to the antibiotic treated pigs. Taken together, we suggest that 0.2% MR-1 makes probiotics an alternative to antibiotics in weaning pigs.