Continuing from the previous Part 1 of the article.
The intestinal tract is the site of nutrient digestion and absorption. Piglets with intestinal disorders after weaning could not only cause intestinal microbiota disruptions linked to diarrhoea and pathogenic infections but also cause stunted growth due to underdevelopment of the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, the pH of the piglet stomach is higher because acid secretion is low and its main source of acidity comes from fermentation of lactose from sow’s milk (Cranwell et al., 1976).
Butyric acid supplementation in piglet allows for stimulation of parietal cells which increases HCl secretion, enabling piglets to better adapt and digest feeds when they switch to solid feeds. A raised stomach pH also leads to poor digestion which causes undigested feed to be fermented in the hindgut and may provoke diarrhoea. The higher pH levels in the stomach also enables pathogen overgrowth (Canibe et al., 2001). Dietary addition of butyric acid not only helps reduces stomach pH but it also has bactericidal effects which helps reduce pathogen overgrowth and prevent diarrhoea (Roselli et al., 2005). A higher gastric pH also allows beneficial bacteria to survive allowing them greater opportunity to colonise the digestive tract.
Keeping in mind that piglets have relatively short digestive tracts and much shorter feed retention times, uncoated or partially coated butyrate salt additives seems to be a better choice for them.
Animal production and growth depends on nutrients utilization which is largely dependant affected by the gut. High nutrient utilization allows for accelerated momentum towards growth with a low cost which is largely in the interest of producers.
Introducing BTR 90
At Manuka Biotech, we carry partially coated sodium butyrate with a high concentration – BTR 90. BTR 90 is made with our newly launched, new generation of sodium butyrate which is ball-shaped granules instead of the conventional rod-shaped granules. The uniform ball-shaped granules offer multiple benefits compared to the conventional rod-shaped granules which allowed us to achieve:
As previously mentioned, gastric retention times has been reported to be 1.5-6 hours in pigs. Therefore, when BTR 90 will start dissociating into butyrate and sodium ions in the stomach (after gastric lipase partial digestion of the outer coating) and the pH of the stomach favours formation of butyric acid (pKa is higher than pH of stomach). Here, it can exert antibacterial effects in the stomach reducing the pathogen load of the animal. After 4 hours in the stomach BTR 90 still withheld around 25% its sodium butyrate which could go on to exert the benefits of sodium butyrate in the distal small intestine and hindgut. Butyric acid is readily absorbed by enterocytes via passive diffusion and used to increase villus length and cells turnover thus improving intestinal integrity. Besides that, this allows for increase in beneficial acidophilic bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium which increases competition for pathogenic bacteria and increases lactic acid production which inhibits Salmonella spp. and E. coli. As butyric acid travels along the way, it increasingly favours formation of butyrate and hydrogen ions (due to higher pH). As for BTR 90, it could be better suited for younger animals such as piglets or starters because they have a shorter feed retention time to allow for more sodium butyrate to release throughout the entire digestive tract.
BTR 90 is an excellent choice for benefits such as increased parietal and goblet cells expression which helps increase HCl production and improvement of mucus layer properties because the sodium butyrate release is greater earlier in the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, the increased HCl production allows for increased feed digestion and less feed fermentation in the hindgut and reduction of pathogen load which could help alleviate some causes of diarrhoea.
To find out more about BTR 90 feel free to visit manukabiotech.com for more information or send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We also carry butyrin products and welcome enquires for our new generation ball-shaped granules sodium butyrate.
By Kayla Wong, Technical Specialist, Manuka Biotech
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