Effect of dietary addition of free or fat-protected calcium formate on growth, intestinal morphology and health of Escherichia coli k88 challenged weaning pigs

Abstract

The practice of adding organic acid to diets for weaning pigs is quite established. An improvement of growth after weaning has been averagely demonstrated with a meta-analysis of feeding trials (Partanen and Mroz, 1999). However data showing that organic acids can positively counteract the presence of post-weaning diarrhoea and of enterotoxigenic E. coli k88 (ETEC) (Tsiloyiannis et al., 2001) contrast with the absence of positive results in ETEC challenged pigs (Risley et al., 1993).

Keywords

• weaning pig, Escherichia coli K88, feeding, formate