The Influence of Dietary Gallic Acid on Growth Performance and Plasma Antioxidant Status of High and Low Weaning Weight Piglets

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Gallic acid (GA) has been demonstrated to have antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and health-promoting properties. In pigs, GA supplementation has been shown to decrease di-arrhea incidence of weaned piglets and improve their intestinal integrity. The present experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that growth performance and diarrhea after weaning could be improved by supplementing the diet with 400 mg/kg GA to weaned piglets, especially for low weaning weight piglets. ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the effects of dietary gallic acid (GA) on growth performance, diarrhea incidence and plasma antioxidant status of weaned piglets regardless of whether weaning weight was high or low. A total of 120 weaned piglets were randomly allocated to four treatments in a 42-day experiment with a 2 × 2 factorial treatment arrangement comparing different weaning weights (high weight (HW) or low weight (LW), 8.49 ± 0.18 kg vs. 5.45 ± 0.13 kg) and dietary treatment (without supplementation (CT) or with supplementation of 400 mg/kg of GA). The results showed that HW piglets exhibited better growth performance and plasma antioxidant capacity. Piglets supplemented with GA had higher body weight (BW) on day 42 and average daily gain (ADG) from day 0 to 42 compared to the control piglets, which is mainly attributed to the specific improvement on BW and ADG of LW piglets by the supplementation of GA. The decreased values of diarrhea incidence were seen in piglets fed GA, more particularly in LW piglets. In addition, dietary GA numerically reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content in plasma of LW piglets. In conclusion, our study suggests that dietary GA may especially improve the growth and health in LW weaned piglets.