Protective effects of probiotics against heat stress induced metabolic and intestinal dysfunction in lactating sows

Heat stress reduces sow productivity during lactation by disrupting feed intake, endocrine regulation, immune balance, and gut function, ultimately impairing litter growth performance. Probiotic supplementation has been proposed as a nutritional strategy to alleviate heat stress related physiological disturbances, but evidence integrating performance, systemic responses, and gut microbiota modulation in lactating sows remains limited.This project investigates the effects of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus reuteri strains MP1 and MP3 on sow performance, inflammatory and oxidative responses, gut barrier integrity, endocrine regulation, and fecal microbiota composition under heat stress conditions. Fecal samples from lactating sows were subjected to 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 amplicon sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq platform to characterize microbial community changes associated with probiotic supplementation during heat stress.