Roles of glutamine and nucleotides in combination in growth, immune responses and FMD antibody titres of weaned pigs

This study examined the effects of glutamine and nucleotides on growth, intestinal villous height and immune responses of weaned pigs. Eighty weaned pigs (Landrace X Yorkshire X Duroc) were randomly assigned to five treatments, including a control diet and a 2 (glutamine 1.0 and 1.5%) by 2 (nucleotides 500 and 1000 p.p.m.) factorial design. There were no differences among the five treatments in weight gain from weeks 0 to 4 and 0 to 8 of the experiment. However, the food intake of treatment 3 (glutamine 1.0% and nucleotides 1000 p. p. in.)for weeks 4 to 8 was higher (P < 0.05) than that of the control group. Intestinal villous height, and serum immunoglobulin-G concentration 2 h post lipopolysaccharide injection, were higher (P < 0.05) for pigs administered treatment 3 than for controls. Furthermore, foot and mouth disease (FMD) neutralizing antibody titres were also higher (P < 0.05) than the control group for pigs given treatment 3 when measured 3 weeks following vaccination with FMD antigen. These observations suggest that a combination of 10% of glutamine and 1000 p. p. in. of nucleotides in the diet could improve food intake and intestinal villous height and promote the immune responses and FMD antibody titres of weaned pigs.