Dietary whole sweet sorghum silage alters jejunal morphology, selected cecal bacterial taxa, and meat quality in heavy finishing pigs
7 affiliations
- 1Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Non-Grain Feed Resources (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University
- 2College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University
- 3Qingdao Huanshan Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
- 4College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University
- 5Jiangji Town Animal Husbandry Station, Ningyang
- 6Zhongcheng Feed Technology Co., Ltd.
- 7College of Agricultural Science and Technology, Shandong Agriculture and Engineering University
Abstract
Whole sweet sorghum silage (WSS) is a locally available forage resource with potential application in sustainable swine production, yet its biological effects on the intestinal environment and production-related traits of heavy finishing pigs (defined here as pigs entering the trial at approximately 132 kg BW) remain unclear. This study evaluated the effects of replacing 20 percentage units of corn with WSS (on an as-fed basis) on growth performance, meat quality, jejunal morphology, and cecal bacterial composition. Seventy-two Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire pigs were fed the corn-based control diet (CON) or the WSS diet for 30 d. Compared with CON, WSS reduced average daily gain and feed intake and increased the feed-to-gain ratio. It also decreased backfat thickness while increasing loin-eye area and marbling score. WSS reduced 48-h drip loss and increased inosine monophosphate concentrations in both the longissimus dorsi and psoas major muscles. Jejunal villus height and the villus-height-to-crypt-depth ratio were increased in WSS-fed pigs. No significant differences were detected in alpha-diversity indices or unweighted UniFrac community structure between diets, whereas an exploratory linear discriminant analysis effect size procedure identified Streptosporangium , Kribbella , Oxalobacter , and Planifilum as taxa associated with WSS and Bacteroides -related features as associated with CON. Because the diets were not nutrient-matched, these responses reflect the complete dietary contrast. Overall, WSS was associated with a pattern of reduced growth performance accompanied by selected changes in carcass and meat-quality traits, concurrent jejunal morphological adaptation, and exploratory cecal bacterial signals that warrant mechanistic validation.
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BibTeX
@article{shi2026dietary,
title = {{Dietary whole sweet sorghum silage alters jejunal morphology, selected cecal bacterial taxa, and meat quality in heavy finishing pigs}},
author = {Shaoyang Shi and Jiandong Wei and Yonggang Zhang and Xuejun Yuan and Xianglan Shang and Xiao Li and Huajie Zhou and Yanping Jiang and Weiren Yang and Min Zhou and Shuzhen Jiang},
journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2026.1971504},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1971504/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dietary whole sweet sorghum silage alters jejunal morphology, selected cecal bacterial taxa, and meat quality in heavy finishing pigs
AU - Shaoyang Shi
AU - Jiandong Wei
AU - Yonggang Zhang
AU - Xuejun Yuan
AU - Xianglan Shang
AU - Xiao Li
AU - Huajie Zhou
AU - Yanping Jiang
AU - Weiren Yang
AU - Min Zhou
AU - Shuzhen Jiang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1971504
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1971504/full
AB - Whole sweet sorghum silage (WSS) is a locally available forage resource with potential application in sustainable swine production, yet its biological effects on the intestinal environment and production-related traits of heavy finishing pigs (defined here as pigs entering the trial at approximately 132 kg BW) remain unclear. This study evaluated the effects of replacing 20 percentage units of corn with WSS (on an as-fed basis) on growth performance, meat quality, jejunal morphology, and cecal bacterial composition. Seventy-two Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire pigs were fed the corn-based control diet (CON) or the WSS diet for 30 d. Compared with CON, WSS reduced average daily gain and feed intake and increased the feed-to-gain ratio. It also decreased backfat thickness while increasing loin-eye area and marbling score. WSS reduced 48-h drip loss and increased inosine monophosphate concentrations in both the longissimus dorsi and psoas major muscles. Jejunal villus height and the villus-height-to-crypt-depth ratio were increased in WSS-fed pigs. No significant differences were detected in alpha-diversity indices or unweighted UniFrac community structure between diets, whereas an exploratory linear discriminant analysis effect size procedure identified Streptosporangium , Kribbella , Oxalobacter , and Planifilum as taxa associated with WSS and Bacteroides -related features as associated with CON. Because the diets were not nutrient-matched, these responses reflect the complete dietary contrast. Overall, WSS was associated with a pattern of reduced growth performance accompanied by selected changes in carcass and meat-quality traits, concurrent jejunal morphological adaptation, and exploratory cecal bacterial signals that warrant mechanistic validation.
SN - 1664-302X
ER -