Dietary shifts play a key role in decreased longevity in livestock. Ruminants are adapted to fibre-rich diets but, due to intensification, high-producing ruminants nowadays are commonly fed grain-based (high starch) diets to increase intake and productivity.

However, these diets can have a negative effect on animal health. Chronic inflammation is one factor prevalent in animal production that can lead to significant losses in productivity, efficiency, and health. The classical tetrad of inflammation, first described by Celsus two millennia ago, consists of heat, redness, swelling, and pain. In the 19th century, Rudolf Virchow upgraded this concept to include loss of function, which explains the profound consequences of inflammation on animal production and health.

Possible causes of gut inflammation, or otherwise known as gastrointestinal inflammation, in large and small ruminants are dietary factors, rumen acidosis, and stress. The production cycle itself is a source of chronic inflammation, encompassing stages such as calving, lambing or kidding, lactation, weaning, and breeding. Gastrointestinal inflammation occurs when the digestive tract’s lining becomes inflamed.

Impact of loss of function

Physiological changes due to inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) are:

•Increased permeability: Chronic inflammation leads to loss of integrity in the enterocyte layer, damaging tight junctions and compromising the gut mucosa’s ability to maintain isolation from micro-organisms, allowing bacteria, pathogens, and toxins to pass in between epithelial cells, resulting in cell damage or intestinal inflammation.

•Immune response: Once the bacteria, pathogens, and toxins pass between cells, pro-inflammatory cytokines are released, and immune cells are activated.

•Inflammation and oxidative stress: The production of reactive oxygen species and pro-inflammatory mediators leads to inflammation and tissue damage.

•Altered gut motility: Leads to diarrhoea or constipation.

•Hormonal changes: Increased release of stress hormones like cortisol.

This critical loss of function in the GIT triggers a vicious cycle of inflammation, exacerbating production and health losses in productive animals. The intake of the animal can decrease by up to 15%, reducing weight gain and increasing the general maintenance needs due to the poor health status. During this period, the animal’s metabolism is altered and nutrient absorption disrupted.

Nutrients and up to 30% of ingested energy are pulled to the site of chronic inflammation or used to manage the chronic inflammation process, instead of contributing to growth, reproduction, and milk and meat production. These actions lead to huge losses in profitability.

Inflammation fighting compounds

Improving management practices such as biosecurity and medication can mitigate inflammation, which can also be managed through nutrition. Precise nutrition focusses on the nutritional requirements of the animal at a specific stage, while functional nutrition focusses on products or compounds that affect the problem directly.

Some plants contain bio-functional compounds that can promote the animal’s anti-inflammatory status by modulating intestinal inflammation and oxidative stress. The Sanguinarine extract from the Macleaya plant, and the Magnolol and Honokiol extracts from the Magnolia flower are recognised and used as a functional nutritional strategy in fighting inflammation.

These plant extracts are alkaloid and neo-lignan compounds that, when used in combination, can significantly increase the integrity of the gut, therefore ensuring optimal nutrient absorption during stressful periods.

Research into these compounds has shown them to not only preserve the tight junctions on intestinal cells, but to also limit the amount of pro-inflammatory markers present, thus reducing inflammation. More energy will be re-directed to performance instead of amplifying the inflammatory process. These plant extracts have both a synergistic effect on the animal and prevent leaky gut.

For enquiries, contact Gisela Bisschoff from ADM Nutrition SA at 066 485 6747 or Gisela.Bisschoff@adm.com.