Probiotic Enterococcus italicus supplementation in pregnant sows improve immunity against Porcine Epidermic Diarrhea in suckling piglet.

Abstract

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus infection can cause disease in pigs of all ages. The mortality rate of newborn piglets is almost 100% and in suckling piglets, the mortality rate is up to 80%. The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of supplementing probiotic Enterococcus italicus bacteria in pregnant sows to the immune level of suckling pigs infected with PED pathogens. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used to divided 18 first parity sows into 2 groups with 3 repetitions of 3 sows each. All were ad libitum water and feeding with commercial feeds 2 kilograms per day and the second group as the experimental group mixed with probiotics of not less than 10⁶ CFU/g of food throughout the pregnancy period. Then 2 weeks before the labor, all sows were fed the PED virus from the symptomatic piglet's intestines. 27 piglets (3 days of age) were randomly assigned to PED infection, observe clinical signs and collected the serum after 3 days of infection. The immunoperoxidase monolayer assay (IPMA) was examined for antibody titer with 3 replications per piglet. Results showed the second group of piglets had clinical signs and mortality rate lower than group 1 and had a significant antibody titer level against PED (p <0.05). These results indicate that piglets received immune from the mother through colostrum. The sows that were given the probiotic Enterococcus italicus were better able to transmit protection through colostrum.