This research aimed to study whether Enteromorpha polysaccharide-zinc (EP-Zn) can act as an alternative to antibiotics in weaned piglet feeds. Two hundred and twenty-four weaned piglets from 14 pens were randomly assigned into 1 of 2 groups according to their body weight and litter size (7 pens/group). The piglets in the antibiotics group were fed with olaquindox at 400 mg/kg and enduracidin at 800 mg/kg basal diet, and piglets in the EP-Zn group were fed with EP-Zn at 800 mg/kg basal diet. One piglet per pen was selected to collect samples after 14 d of feeding. Results showed that EP-Zn supplementation significantly increased the plasma anti-oxidants level compared with the antibiotics group. However, a nonsignificant difference was observed in growth performance between treatment groups. Additionally, the intestinal tight junction (TJ) protein expression and the histopathologic evaluation data showed that EP-Zn contributed to improving intestinal development. Further, piglets in the EP-Zn group had a lower level of intestinal inflammation-related cytokines including IL-6 (P < 0.001), IL-8 (P < 0.05), IL-12 (P < 0.05) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (P < 0.001), and showed an inhibition of the phosphorylation nuclear transcription factor-kappa B (p–NF–κB) (P < 0.05) and total NF-κB (P < 0.001) level in the jejunal mucosa. Taken together, it is supposed that EP-Zn, to some extent, would be a potent alternative to prophylactic antibiotics in improving the health status of weaned piglets.

本研究旨在研究浒苔是否多糖锌 (EP-Zn) 可以作为断奶仔猪饲料中抗生素的替代品。来自 14 个围栏的 224 头断奶仔猪根据体重和窝产仔数随机分为 2 个组（7 个围栏/组）。抗生素组仔猪饲喂400 mg/kg 喹乙醇和800 mg/kg 耐力酸素基础日粮，EP-Zn 组仔猪饲喂EP-Zn 800 mg/kg 基础日粮。饲养14 d后，每栏选择1头仔猪采集样本。结果表明，与抗生素组相比，EP-Zn 补充剂显着增加了血浆抗氧化剂水平。然而，在治疗组之间观察到生长性能的非显着差异。此外，肠道紧密连接 (TJ) 蛋白表达和组织病理学评估数据表明 EP-Zn 有助于改善肠道发育。此外，EP-Zn 组仔猪的肠道炎症相关细胞因子水平较低，包括 IL-6。P  < 0.001)、IL-8 ( P  < 0.05)、IL-12 ( P  < 0.05) 和肿瘤坏死因子-α (TNF-α) ( P  < 0.001)，并显示出对磷酸化核转录因子- 空肠粘膜中的κB（p-NF-κB）（P  <0.05）和总NF-κB（P <0.001）水平。综上所述，在一定程度上，EP-Zn 有望成为预防性抗生素的有效替代品，以改善断奶仔猪的健康状况。