Boar taint is one of the major issues in boar meat production and processing. Most widely used method for boar taint prevention is piglet castration, but this practise is soon going to be abandoned and the specific diet for animals is discussed and researched as one of the alternatives for boar taint prevention. Boar taint is mailnly caused by metabolic product of intestinal microorganisms skatole, which is produced through bacterial fermentation of L-triptofane in the colon, and steroid androstenone. Both sources of skatole can be manipulated and reduced through diet. As tannins affect digestion of proteins and therefore gut microbiota, we can expect they will also affect the metabolism of skatole. Through an experiment that included analysis of gut samples of 29 pigs whose diet included addition of diferrent concentrations of tannine exstract of chestnut we studied the effect of tannin-containing feed on gut microbiota structure in pigs. We used samples of gut contents from caecum, ascending colon and descending colon. DGGE method was used for profiling bacterial 16S rDNA PCR products. We observed differences in the structure of the caecal and colonic microbiota, and saw the effect of tannin extracts on colon microbiota but not on caecal microbiota. The changes in gut microbiota structure of the ascending and descending colon were most noticeable when 3% of tannin extracts were added to the feed.
|
