@article{
author = "Petrujkić, Branko and Beier, Ross C. and He, Haiqi and Genovese, Kenneth J. and Swaggerty, Christina L. and Hume, Michael E. and Crippen, Tawni L. and Harvey, Roger B. and Anderson, Robin C. and Nisbet, David J.",
year = "2018",
abstract = "BACKGROUNDNigella sativa L. (NS) is a plant containing bioactive constituents such as thymoquinone. Extracts of NS improve performance and reduce enteropathogen colonization in poultry and small ruminants, but studies with swine are lacking. In two different studies oral administration of NS extracts at doses equivalent to 0, 1.5 and 4.5g kg(-1) diet was assessed on piglet performance and intestinal carriage of wildtype Escherichia coli and Campylobacter, and Salmonella Typhimurium. RESULTSWildtype E. coli populations in the jejunal and rectal content collected 9days after treatment began were decreased (P0.05). Populations recovered from pigs treated with extract at 1.5 and 4.5g kg(-1) diet were 0.72-1.31 log(10) units lower than the controls (ranging from 6.05 to 6.61 log(10) CFU g(-1)). Wildtype Campylobacter and Salmonella Typhimurium were unaffected by NS treatment. Feed efficiency over the 9days improved linearly (P<0.05) from 3.88 with 0 NS-treated pigs to 1.47 and 1.41 with pigs treated with NS at 1.5 and 4.5g kg(-1) diet, respectively, possibly due to high glutamine/glutamic acid content of the NS extract. CONCLUSIONNS supplementation of weanling pigs improved feed efficiency and helped control intestinal E. coli during this vulnerable production phase.",
publisher = "Wiley, Hoboken",
journal = "Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture",
title = "Nigella sativa L. as an alternative antibiotic feed supplement and effect on growth performance in weanling pigs",
volume = "98",
number = "8",
pages = "3175-3181",
doi = "10.1002/jsfa.8823"
}