Effect of probiotics and prebiotics supplemented to the diet of growing pigs on the content of short chain fatty acids in the jejunum and cecum 1

During the 70-d experimental period, 9 poly-cannulated gilts fitted with T-cannulas in the jejunum and in the cecum were fed a high-fat diet (HF; 15.5% of fat). The HF diet, which served as control (CC), was supplemented either with Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) or with inulin and horse chestnut (Aesculus Hippocastanum) (IH). On d 0, 28, 42, 56, and 70, samples of jejunal and cecal digesta were collected. As a result of diet supplementation with tested substances, lower (P < 0.05) concentrations of propionic, butyric, valeric, and caproic acids in the jejunal digesta were found in treatments LP and IH than in CC. The concentrations of lactic acid in jejunal and cecal digesta were greater (P < 0.05) in the IH treatment than in the CC or LP treatments. The concentration of butyric acid in cecal digesta in treatment CC was 7.94 mmol/L and increased (P < 0.05) to 12.57 and 11.28 mmol/L in LP and IH treatments, respectively. This represents an increase of 58 and 42%, respectively, over the CC treatment. Supplementation of a HF diet with L. plantarum, inulin, and horse chestnut resulted in greater concentrations of butyric and lactic acid in cecum.