Natural Pig Plasma Immunoglobulins Have Anti-Bacterial Effects: Potential for Use as Feed Supplement for Treatment of Intestinal Infections in Pigs

• Published in: PloS one 2016-01, Vol.11 (1), p.e0147373-e0147373
• Main Authors: Hedegaard, Chris J, Strube, Mikael L, Hansen, Marie B, Lindved, Bodil K, Lihme, Allan, Boye, Mette, Heegaard, Peter M H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abattoirs; Animal Feed; Animal sciences; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Anti-Bacterial Agents - blood; Anti-Bacterial Agents - isolation & purification; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotics; Antibodies; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Bacteria; Bacterial Adhesion - drug effects; Bacterial effects; Biodiversity; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Causes of; Cell Line; Chromatography; Colonization; Diarrhea; Diarrhea - immunology; Diarrhea - microbiology; Diarrhea - prevention & control; Diarrhea - veterinary; Dietary Supplements; Disease control; E coli; Epithelial Cells - drug effects; Epithelial Cells - immunology; Epithelial Cells - microbiology; Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli - drug effects; Escherichia coli - growth & development; Escherichia coli Infections - immunology; Escherichia coli Infections - microbiology; Escherichia coli Infections - prevention & control; Escherichia coli Infections - veterinary; Feed supplements; Feeds; Gastrointestinal diseases; Hogs; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin G - isolation & purification; Immunoglobulin G - pharmacology; Immunoglobulins; Infections; Infectious diseases; Intestinal Diseases - immunology; Intestinal Diseases - microbiology; Intestinal Diseases - prevention & control; Intestinal Diseases - veterinary; Intestine; Intestines - drug effects; Intestines - immunology; Intestines - microbiology; Livestock; Medical treatment; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microbiota; Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms); Microbiota - drug effects; Physiological aspects; Research and Analysis Methods; Salmonella; Salmonella enterica - drug effects; Salmonella enterica - growth & development; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Shedding; Suidae; Swine; Swine Diseases - immunology; Swine Diseases - microbiology; Swine Diseases - prevention & control; Swine production; Weaning; West Nile virus; Yersinia ruckeri - growth & development; Zoology
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147373

There is an increasing demand for non-antibiotics solutions to control infectious disease in intensive pig production. Here, one such alternative, namely pig antibodies purified from slaughterhouse blood was investigated in order to elucidate its potential usability to control post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD), which is one of the top indications for antibiotics usage in the pig production. A very cost-efficient and rapid one-step expanded bed adsorption (EBA) chromatography procedure was used to purify pig immunoglobulin G from slaughterhouse pig plasma (more than 100 litres), resulting in >85% pure pig IgG (ppIgG). The ppIgG thus comprised natural pig immunoglobulins and was subsequently shown to contain activity towards four pig-relevant bacterial strains (three different types of Escherichia coli and one type of Salmonella enterica) but not towards a fish pathogen (Yersinia ruckeri), and was demonstrated to inhibit the binding of the four pig relevant bacteria to a pig intestinal cell line (IPEC-J2). Finally it was demonstrated in an in vivo weaning piglet model for intestinal colonization with an E. coli F4+ challenge strain that ppIgG given in the feed significantly reduced shedding of the challenge strain, reduced the proportion of the bacterial family Enterobacteriaceae, increased the proportion of families Enterococcoceae and Streptococcaceae and generally increased ileal microbiota diversity. Conclusively, our data support the idea that natural IgG directly purified from pig plasma and given as a feed supplement can be used in modern swine production as an efficient and cost-effective means for reducing both occurrence of PWD and antibiotics usage and with a potential for the prevention and treatment of other intestinal infectious diseases even if the causative agent might not be known.