Effects of liquid metabolite combinations produced by Lactobacillus plantarum on growth performance, faeces characteristics, intestinal morphology and diarrhoea incidence in postweaning piglets

A study was carried out to investigate the effects of feeding liquid metabolite combinations produced by Lactobacillus plantarum strains on growth performance, diarrhoea incidence, faecal pH, microfloral counts, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and intestinal villus height and crypt depth of postweaning piglets. A total of 120 piglets (26 days old) were randomly assigned evenly into five treatment groups treated with same basal diet: (1) -ve control (free antibiotic); (2) + ve control (0.03% of chlortetracycline); (3) Com 1 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG11 and RI11 strains); (4) Com 2 (0.3% metabolite of TL1, RG14 and RS5 strains); (5) Com 3 (0.3% metabolite of RG11, RG14 and RI11 strains). After 5 weeks, the average daily feed intake was not significantly different (P > 0.05) among the treatments and feed conversion ratio was the highest (P