Effects of limestone inclusion on growth performance, intestinal microbiota, and the jejunal transcriptomic profile when fed to weaning pigs

The hypothesis of the present study is that weaned pigs offered diets containing up to 1.6% limestone, or 1.2% total Ca, will reduce growth performance which might be a consequence of an altered mucosal barrier function and/or the microbiota population. Therefore, the objective was to determine whether a high levels of limestone have an impact on growth performance, jejunum gene expression and microbiota profile in colon content of weaned pigs.