Comparing the microbiome of post-weaning pigs in farms using, or not using, in-feed zinc oxide and antibiotics.

Post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) is a multifactorial disease that affects piglets at weaning, leading to productive and economic losses. Its control includes the use of in-feed prophylactic antibiotics and therapeutic zinc oxide (ZnO), treatments that, since the 26th of June 2022, are no longer available in the European Union due to antimicrobial resistance spreading and environmental risk of soil pollution associated to the use of both products. This study uses shotgun metagenomic sequencing to investigate the environmental and faecal microbiome on 10 farms using (Treated) or not using (ZnO-free) in-feed antibiotics and ZnO during the first 14 days post-weaning (dpw).