Stress, Nutrition, and Intestinal Immune Responses in Pigs — A Review

Modern livestock production became highly intensive and large scaled to increase production efficiency. This production environment could add stressors affecting the health and growth of animals. Major stressors can include environment (air quality and temperature), nutrition, and infection. These stressors can reduce growth performance and alter immune systems at systemic and local levels including the gastrointestinal tract. Heat stress increases the permeability, oxidative stress, and inflammatory responses in the gut. Nutritional stress from fasting, antinutritional compounds, and toxins induces the leakage and destruction of the tight junction proteins in the gut. Fasting is shown to suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines, whereas deoxynivalenol increases the recruitment of intestinal pro-inflammatory cytokines and the level of lymphocytes in the gut. Pathogenic and viral infections such as Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus can lead to loosening the intestinal epithelial barrier. On the other hand, supplementation of Lactobacillus or Saccharaomyces reduced infectious stress by ETEC. It was noted that major stressors altered the permeability of intestinal barriers and profiles of genes and proteins of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in mucosal system in pigs. However, it is not sufficient to fully explain the mechanism of the gut immune system in pigs under stress conditions. Correlation and interaction of gut and systemic immune system under major stressors should be better defined to overcome aforementioned obstacles.