Increasing the level of hemicelluloses in the lactation diet affects the faecal microbiota of sows and their piglets without affecting their performances

Table 4 Volatile fatty acid (VFA) profile in the faeces of slow- and fast-growing piglets originating from sows fed increasing levels of hemicelluloses during the lactation period

^†Dietary treatment	HC8		HC9		HC11		HC13		SEM	^§P-values
^‡Growth category	SG	FG	SG	FG	SG	FG	SG	FG	SEM	T	G	T x G	L	Q
Total volatile fatty acids,µmol/g	46.1	47.4	51.7	40.2	41.5	58.8	38.6	42.1	6.70	0.13	0.55	0.12	0.93	0.46
Individual VFA, % of total VFAs
Acetate	54.9	51.7	54.3	54.3	58.2	55.2	56.6	52.6	3.21	0.83	0.22	0.92	0.81	0.40
Propionate	19.7	19.6	19.8	15.6	17.4	15.2	16.3	17.9	2.01	0.29	0.32	0.39	0.56	0.09
Isobutyrate	3.7	4.8	3.9	4.5	4.5	4.7	4.3	5.3	0.35	0.41	< 0.01	0.36	0.30	0.17
Butyrate	12.5	12.8	12.6	15.2	11.3	14.2	13.0	13.2	1.81	0.75	0.19	0.76	0.96	0.32
Isovalerate	5.2	7.2	5.9	6.8	5.8	7.04	6.0	7.4	0.52	0.84	< 0.01	0.69	0.72	0.42
Valerate	4.0	3.9	3.4	3.7	2.8	3.6	3.9	3.6	0.42	0.94	0.58	0.49	0.57	0.82

^†Dietary treatment: HC13 = Sow’s lactation diet containing 13% hemicelluloses; HC11 = Sow’s lactation diet containing 11% hemicelluloses; HC9 = Sow’s lactation diet containing 9% hemicelluloses; HC8 = Sow’s lactation diet containing 8% hemicelluloses
^‡Growth category: SG = piglets displaying slow growth (average daily gain: 167 ± 10.1 g/d) from 0 to 16 days of age; FG = piglets displaying fast growth (average daily gain: 280 ± 10.1 g/d) from 0 to 16 days of age
^§P-values: The presented P-values depict the overall sow dietary treatment (T), growth category (G), the interaction between sow dietary treatment and growth category (T x G), linear (L) and quadratic (Q) effects

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