Digestive tract morphology of piglets fed diets with isolated or concentrate soy protein.

Abstract

Fifteen weaned piglets (WP) were used to investigate the effect of dietary protein source on the development of digestives organs and the intestinal integrity. The WP group was fed during four week after weaning with one of three diets: Concentrate soy protein (CSP), Isolated soy protein as the only protein source (ISP) or supplemented with dry whey (ISP-DW). At 44 day of age, the piglets were slaughtered, and the pancreas, stomach, small intestine (SI), and liver were dissected and weighed. The SI was cut in three portions duodenum, jejunum and ileum) to perform histological analysis. Furthermore, at weaning five piglets were slaughtered to form a control group (CG). The organs absolute weight in weaned piglets fed ISP was similar to that of CG and lower of other WP, excepting liver that it did not differ of weaned piglets fed with CSP. Among WP, those of ISP had the lower (P<0.01) relative weight (g•kg-1 BW) of pancreas and SI. Others organs weights were similar between WP and CG. In duodenum, the villus was shorter in ISP weaned piglets than WC (159 vs 344 m); in jejunum ISP-DW piglets had the villus with a similar height to CG (340 vs 416 m). The development of the villus and digestives organs was more evident in piglets fed with ISP-DW or CSP.