Early feed restriction of lambs modifies ileal epimural microbiota and affects immunity parameters during the fattening period

8 páginas, 4 tablas, 2 figuras.
Bacteria firmly attached to the gastrointestinal epithelium during the pre-weaning phase may show a significant impact on nutrient processing, immunity parameters, health and feed efficiency of lambs during post-weaning phases. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe the differences in the ileal epimural microbiota (e.g. total bacteria, Prevotella spp., Bifidobacterium spp. and Lactobacillus spp.) of fattening lambs promoted by early feed restriction during the suckling phase trying to elucidate some of the underlying mechanisms behind changes in feed efficiency during the fattening period. A total of 24 Merino lambs (average BW 4.81±0.256 kg) were used, 12 of them (ad libitum, ADL) kept permanently in individual pens with their mothers, whereas the other 12 lambs were separated from their dams for 9 h each day to be exposed to milk restriction (RES). After weaning (BW=15 kg) all the animals were penned individually, offered the same complete pelleted diet (35 g/kg BW per day) and slaughtered at a BW of 27 kg. During the fattening period, reduced gain : feed ratio (0.320 v. 0.261, P
This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO, AGL2014-54124R). The authors would also like to thank MINECO (BFU2014-57964-R) for TLR quantification and CSIC (Proyecto Intramural Especial; Project 201540E084) for supporting J. Frutos with a training contract. Alba Santos gratefully acknowledges receipt of a pre-doctoral grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD, FPU15/01630). María Martínez-Valladares was funded by the Spanish ‘Ramón y Cajal’ Programme of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (RYC-2015-18368).