Dietary supplementation of arginine and glutamine enhances the growth and intestinal mucosa development of weaned piglets

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of arginine and glutamine on the performance and intestinal mucosa development in weaned piglets. One hundred and forty-four Yorkshire piglets weaned at 28±2 days were randomly assigned for 28 days to 4 treatments, in a 2 (arginine 0% and 0.7%) by 2 (glutamine 0% and 1%) factorial design. The results indicated that treatments 2 (arginine 0.7%) and 4 (arginine 0.7% plus glutamine 1%) enhanced (P<0.05) the average daily weight gain and reduced the feed:gain ratio compared with treatment 1 (arginine 0% and glutamine 0%, control group). All of the experimental groups had a decreased incidence of diarrhea. However, significant differences (P<0.05) were found only between treatments 4 and 1. Furthermore, sucrase in the duodenum and maltase in the duodenum and the jejunum in the piglets fed a mixture of arginine and glutamine were also higher than in the control group (P<0.05). The villus height:crypt depth ratio was significantly higher in treatment 4 group than in other groups (P<0.05) in the duodenum. The results suggested that a dietary supplement mixture of 0.7% arginine and 1% glutamine improved the growth performance and the intestinal mucosa development of weaned piglets and that the effect was greater than with the single supplementation of either arginine or glutamine.