Functional properties of dietary protein sources towards the gut and systemic metabolism in pigs.

This study was designed to address key questions concerning the use of alternative protein sources for animal feeds and addresses aspects such as their nutrient composition and impact on gut function. The transcriptional response of intestinal mucosal tissue (jejunum and ileum) served as parameters for the local response. Growing pigs (BW 35 kg/approx. 10 weeks) were fed with experimental diets containing a single, common or new protein sources viz. soybean meal (SBM), black soldier fly larvae (BSF), spray dried blood plasma (SDPP), rapeseed meal (RSM), and wheat gluten meal (WGM) over a period of 4 weeks. Overall design: Male pigs were stratified according to bodyweight and litter of origin into five dietary treatment groups. These pigs were fed for four weeks with semi-synthetic diets containing one of the following protein sources. At the end of four weeks, pigs were sacrificed by euthenesia and ileal tissue samples (scrapings) were collected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Agilent microarrays. Soybean meal (SBM) diet group served as reference to make comparisons with other experimental diets.