Influence of diet on postweaning malabsorption and diarrhoea in the pig

Five-day-old pigs challenged with 10(3) pathogenic Escherichia coli (nalidixic acid resistant) showed no clinical signs of disease until subsequently weaned at three weeks. Dietary manipulation was shown to influence xylose malabsorption, diarrhoea and bacterial proliferation after weaning. Brief, but not continuous, contact with the diet before weaning markedly increased the severity of subsequent disease after weaning. Immunogenicity of the weaning diet was critical for the development of the disease. Two diets, identical except that in one the protein source (casein) had previously been enzymatically hydrolysed, were compared. Pigs fed the predigested diet showed no clinical signs of post weaning diarrhoea whereas those fed the untreated casein all developed diarrhoea.