Bacillus-supplemented diet improves growth performance in Jeju native pigs by modulating myogenesis and adipogenesis

Abstract

Probiotics are used in pigs as nutritional supplements to improve health and induce the development of muscle and adipose tissue for enhancing growth performance and harvesting quality meat. In this study, we investigated the effects of Bacillus-based probiotic supplementation on the physiological and biochemical changes in Jeju native pigs (JNPs), including growth performance, backfat layers, blood parameters, serum IgG levels, myogenic and adipogenic markers, and expression of inflammatory markers. Average daily gain and feed efficiency were higher in the Bacillus diet group than in the basal diet group, while backfat thickness was lower in the Bacillus diet group than in the basal diet group. Blood biochemical parameters and hematological profiles were not altered significantly by Bacillus-based probiotic supplementation. Serum IgG concentration increased in the Bacillus diet group compared to the basal diet group. The Bacillus diet group showed increased adipogenic and myogenic markers expression in the longissimus dorsi muscle and adipose tissues. Overall, the data suggest that the Bacillus-based probiotics-supplemented diet regulates myogenesis and adipogenesis in JNPs and improves growth performance. We postulate that this may be due to the changes in the gut microbiota of pigs due to probiotic supplementation.

Keywords:

• Probiotic Bacillus
• Jeju native pigs
• myogenic markers
• adipokines
• cytokines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, (Y-OS & D-SL).

Statistically significant differences between variables in vehicle group and lactobacillus group in p-value p < 0.05. The comparisons were performed using independent student’s t-test

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) [2020R1A2C2004128], the Korea Basic Science Institute (National Research Facilities and Equipment Center) grant funded by the Ministry of Education [2020R1A6C101A188], and the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science and Technology Development [PJ01316701] by the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.