Journal Article

Effects of dietary Hermetia illucens meal inclusion on cecal microbiota and small intestinal mucin dynamics and infiltration with immune cells of weaned piglets

Biasato, Ilaria, Colombino, Elena, Gai, Francesco, Schiavone, Achille, Ferrocino, Ilario, Cocolin, Luca, Capucchio, Maria Teresa, Gasco, Laura, Vincenti, Valeria

2020

Overview

Background The constant interaction between diet and intestinal barrier has a crucial role in determining gut health in pigs. Hermetia illucens (HI) meal (that represents a promising, alternative feed ingredient for production animals) has recently been demonstrated to influence colonic microbiota, bacterial metabolite profile and mucosal immune status of pigs, but no data about modulation of gut mucin dynamics are currently available. The present study evaluated the effects of dietary HI meal inclusion on the small intestinal mucin composition of piglets, as well as providing insights into the cecal microbiota and the mucosal infiltration with immune cells. Results A total of 48 weaned piglets were randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments (control diet [C] and 5% or 10% HI meal inclusion [HI5 and HI10], with 4 replicate boxes/treatment and 4 animals/box) and slaughtered after 61 days of trial (3 animals/box, 12 piglets/diet). The cecal microbiota assessment by 16S rRNA amplicon based sequencing showed higher beta diversity in the piglets fed the HI-based diets than the C ( P  <  0.001). Furthermore, the HI-fed animals showed increased abundance of Blautia , Chlamydia , Coprococcus , Eubacterium , Prevotella , Roseburia , unclassified members of Ruminococcaceae, Ruminococcus and Staphylococcus when compared to the C group (FDR <  0.05). The gut of the piglets fed the HI-based diets showed greater neutral mucin percentage than the C ( P  <  0.05), with the intestinal neutral mucins of the HI-fed animals being also higher than the sialomucins and the sulfomucins found in the gut of the C group ( P  <  0.05). Furthermore, the piglets fed the HI-based diets displayed lower histological scores in the jejunum than the other gut segments (ileum [HI5] or ileum and duodenum [HI10], P  <  0.05). Conclusions Dietary HI meal utilization positively influenced the cecal microbiota and the small intestinal mucin dynamics of the piglets in terms of selection of potentially beneficial bacteria and preservation of mature mucin secretory architecture, without determining the development of gut inflammation. These findings further confirm the suitability of including insect meal in swine diets.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: 16S rRNA / Agriculture / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Animal Physiology / Animals / Binding sites / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biotechnology / Cecum / Chlamydia / Coprococcus / Deoxyribonucleic acid / Diet / Digestive system / DNA / Duodenum / Efficiency / feed composition / Feeds / Food Science / Frontier research in intestinal health of pigs and chickens / Gastrointestinal tract / Genetic testing / Gut health / Hermetia illucens / Hermetia illucens L / Histology / Ileum / Immune status / Immune system / Infiltration / inflammation / Insect meal / Insects / intestinal microorganisms / Intestine / Jejunum / Life Sciences / Metabolites / Microbiota / Microscopy / Mucin / Mucins / Mucosal immunity / Preservation / Prevotella / Principal components analysis / Probiotics / Roseburia / rRNA 16S / Ruminococcaceae / Ruminococcus / Small intestine / species diversity / Staphylococcus / Swine / Taxonomy