Acute enhanced liquid aspirin administration improves performance and intestinal function in nursery pigs

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug which has been a widely used analgesic for pain relief as well as an anti-inflammatory medication. However, it also causes negative effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract including GI bleeding, peptic ulcers, and can also impact the small intestine. Enhanced liquid aspirin (ELA) contains a combination of a salicylate compound, glycerin, triacetate, and saccharin which is more stable than aspirin alone and may reduce negative effects on the GI tract, while still exerting positive effects on inflammatory processes. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate oral ELA in healthy weaning pigs. Eight pigs per treatment were gavaged daily for 5 d with either saline controls (CON) or 2 mg/kg body weight ELA. After the 5-d dosing period, pigs were weighed and then euthanized for intestinal sample collection. ELA-administered pigs gained significantly more body weight relative to initial body weights compared to CON pigs (8% vs. 13.7%; P < 0.05). Additionally, there was the tendency for an increase of 24% in villus height in ELA pigs compared to CON (P = 0.06) and significant increases in relative protein expression of Claudins (CLDN) 3 and 7 (P < 0.05). Finally, several genes were altered in ELA-fed pigs compared to CON including stem cell markers and immune markers. All in all, this data showed that ELA was well tolerated in a pig model, showed a preliminary improvement in body weight, and had no observable negative impacts.