Effects of feeding linseed and linseed expeller meal to newly weaned piglets on growth performance and gut health and function

The effects were evaluated of the inclusion of full fat linseed (125 g/kg) (LS) or linseed expeller meal (85 g/kg) (LSM) in diets for weaned piglets on growth performance and parameters of gut health and function. The diets were fed to groups of 12 post weaning single housed piglets. Three of the five treatments (Control (C)+, LS+, LSM+) were challenged with an enterotoxigenic strain of E. coli on day 6. Two treatments were not challenged (C− and LS−). The main response criteria were daily feed intake, body weight gain, faecal shedding of the E. coli, faecal consistency score, faecal nutrient digestibility and gut wall morphology and histology of the jejunal mucosa on day 18/19 of the study. Over the total experimental period (day 0–18) feed intake and body weight gain were highest in treatment C− and lowest in treatment LSM+ (P < 0.05). Feed conversion ratio did not differ between treatments over the total experimental period. Over day 10–12 of the study, the faecal digestibility of dry matter, ash and energy was higher for treatments C− and C+ compared to treatments LS−, LS+ and LSM+ (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the faecal shedding of E. coli between treatments C+, LS+ and LSM+. Intestinal mucosal histology and morphology were only slightly affected by the dietary treatments. It was concluded that the use of full fat linseed or linseed expeller meal did not show to be functional ingredients in diets for post-weaning piglet in terms of supporting gut health.