Sus scrofa Metagenome

For weaned piglets, multiple factors such as environmental factors, weaning and infection can lead to oxidative stress, which may result in growth restriction, disease and even death to piglets. Catalase is an important antioxidative enzyme in the body, which could break H2O2 down into O2 and H2O and reduce the damage of reactive oxygen species to the body. Catalase can be inactivated by reactive oxygen species derived free radicals, as well as other anti-oxidases. Therefore, exogenous catalase is gradually used in feed industry. However, there was little information available in the scientific literature on the evaluation of effects of dietary supplementation with exogenous catalase on intetinal development of weaned piglets. Our resultes showed that catalase supplementation improved the development of small intestine in which gut microbiota plays an important role. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the changes of pig gut microbiota in response to dietary exogenous catalase supplementation.