The improvement of intestinal efficiency is reflected as a decrease in the relative intestinal weight

Intestinal conditioner pronutrients stimulate enterocytes physiology and improve the structure of the digestive mucosa.

This improvement in digestive efficiency is reflected in a decrease in the relative intestinal weight, which is calculated as follows:

Relative intestinal weight (%) = (intestinal weight (g) / total animal weight (g) ) x 100

Therefore, a reduced relative intestinal weight is correlated with a higher efficiency of this organ. This also means that there will be less percentage of viscera and more percentage of meat for each kg of animal.

Improvement in intestinal efficiency is due to, partially, an increase in nutrient absorption surface. To evaluate this surface, “villi height : crypts depth” ratio should be calculated.  A higher ratio is correlated with greater absorption surface.

Field trials

a) Decrease in relative intestinal weight

The following table summarizes a field trial with pronutrients, in which the treated batch showed a lower relative intestinal weight:

b) Improvement in absorption surface
The following tables show data obtained using pronutrients. Animals receiving them had a more optimized structure of the intestinal mucosa.

Conclusions

Several field trials in pigs and birds showed that intestinal conditioner pronutrients improve digestive efficiency, which is observed by a decrease of intestinal relative weight. This improvement is due to, at least partly, a greater nutrient absorption surface.

In addition, other trials showed that these pronutrients also stimulate the expression of genes related to the synthesis of vesicles for nutrient absorption in enterocytes.

Pronutrients that act as intestinal conditioners are commercialized under the name Alquernat Nebsui, by Biovet, S.A.

Image: Pig digestive system. Source: www.ecured.cu