Control of post-weaning diarrheas to achieve a good production performance is a critical aspect of swine nutrition during this period. Several factors responsible for post-weaning diarrheas include:
- Abrupt changes in the diet, from a liquid (milk-based) to solid, promoting the proliferation of adverse microflora in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Inadequate production of digestive enzymes due to young age
- Decrease in the maternal immunity.
There are several nutritional and therapeutical strategies to cope with this problem.
Traditionally, the use of antibiotics in the feed has been the best option to control diarrheas. Nevertheless, the excessive use of antibiotics in swine production has caused the appearance of resistant bacterial strains worldwide, affecting performance and overall swine health status.
As a consequence, there has been an increase in digestive pro-blems associated with infections by E. coli and Salmonella in young piglets after weaning.
Concerns about microbial resistance due to the use of antibiotics in feed has generated a search for alternative products to act both as prophylactics against enteric pathogens and as growth promoters. CITREX, an organic complex resulting from the activation of Vitamin C with natural organic acids and with a glycerin matrix acting as carrier, represents an excellent option as growth promoter and to control the spread of pathogenic bacteria in the piglet´s gastrointestinal tract. CITREX´s mechanism of action compromises he integrity of the pathogen bacterial cell wall by increasing its permeability. The fact that this mechanism does not affect the bacterial DNA greatly reduces the possibility of resistance development.
Composition and antimicrobial activity of CITREX are certified for every batch manufactured. All its ingredients are categorized as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the USA.
Different trials described below demonstrate the efficacy of CITREX both as growth promoter and preventive of post-weaning diarrheas in piglets when compared against the best antibiotic promoters available in the market, including colistin.
Table 1. Results for Weight Gain (WG) and Feed Conversion (FC) of piglets experimentally challenged with E. coli and treated with Colistin and CITREX in the drinking water.
Figure 1. Haemolytic E. coli concentration detected in faecal cultures of challenged piglets.
Conclusions
Treatments with CITREX were capable of reducing the seve-rity of the E. coli infection, as shown by the less severe clinical symptoms, shorter shedding periods in feces and better production parameters at the end of the trial.
Diarrhea produced by the E. coli challenge was detected for a longer period of time in the animals from the Control and Colistin groups than in the animals treated with CITREX.
Reference: Efecto del Citrex y del sulfato de colistina en lechones destetados (Effect of Citrex and Colistin sulfate in weaned pigs). S. Porntrakulpipat, T. Nongbua, P. Srikote, P. Purisotayo y P. Borisutipetch. School of Veterinary Medicine University of Khon Kaen, Thailand.
Albéitar, Zaragoza - España Noviembre 2006 p. 74-75
CITREX VS COLISTIN AS GROWTH PROMOTER IN PIGLETS
Table 2. Results for Weight Gain, Feed Intake and Feed Conversion of piglets fed diets without growth promoter, with Colistin and with Citrex from 20 to 48 d of age.
Table 3. Results for Weight Gain, Feed Intake and Feed Conversion of piglets fed diets without growth promoter, with Colistin and with Citrex from 20 to 63 d of age.
Conclusions
The inclusion of 200 grams of CITREX per MT of piglet starter feed resulted in a statistically significant improvement in weight gain and feed conversion when compared to the control group without growth promoter.
There were no statistically significant differences in the productive parameters of piglets fed diets with 200 ppm of CITREX or 100 ppm of Colistin.
Reference: Comparison between Citrex and Colistin as growth promoters in piglets.
Sergi Illán, Alberto Fernández and Douglas Zaviezo. COPAGA Experimental Station Lleida, Catalonia – Spain. 2004.
CITREX VS CARBADOX AS GROWTH PROMOTER IN PIGLETS
Conclusions
The inclusion of 200 grams of CITREX per MT of piglet starter feed resulted in a statistically significant improvement in weight gain when compared to the control group without growth promoter. There were no statistically significant differences in the productive parameters of piglets fed diets with 200 ppm of CITREX or 50 ppm of Carbadox.
Reference: Comparison between Citrex y Carbadox as growth promoter in weaning pigs. AGRA PARTNERS, LTD. Des Moines, Iowa – USA. 1999
CITREX AS GROWTH PROMOTER IN PIGLETS
Conclusions
There were no statistically significant differences in the productive parameters of piglets fed diets with 300 ppm of Citrex or 20 ppm of Avilamycin. Piglets fed the combination of 300 ppm of CITREX + 20 ppm of Avilamycin presented a statistically significantly better performance than piglets fed only 20 ppm of Avilamicin.
Reference: Citrex as a feed additive for growth promotion in young fattening pigs. Prof. Dr. Boguslaw Fuchs. College of Animal Science, Wroclaw Agronomy University , Poland. 2004