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Bacillus strains, commonly used as probiotics, can modulate several physiological functions in animals, including digestion and nutrient absorption, immune responses, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal barrier integrity. However, the effect of Bacillus strain administration on rotavirus infection a double-stranded virus that readily infects young animals remains unclear.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether dietary supplementation with a Bacillus-based probiotic could alleviate gut damage induced by rotavirus infection in piglets.
Methods: Twenty-four piglets were randomly assigned into 2 groups fed with the basal diet (n = 16) and the diet containing 109 colony-forming unit Bacillus spores/kg (n = 8). On day 8, 8 piglets fed with the diet supplemented with Bacillus-based probiotic and 8 piglets fed with basal diet were orally infused with rotavirus, while the residue piglets had oral gavage of sterile essential medium. On day 13, piglets were weighed, blood samples were collected, and the animals were slaughtered for small-intestine collection.
Results: Rotavirus challenge induced diarrhea, significantly destroyed the morphology of jejunal mucosa, increased rotavirus-antibody and rotavirus non-structural protein 4 of jejunal mucosa, impaired antioxidant capacity, including malondialdehyde level, total antioxidant capacity and catalase activity, immunity such as interleukin 2, interleukin 4 and secreted immunoglobulin A levels, mucins and the mRNA expression of tight-junction-related, such as Zonula occludens 1, occludin and apoptotic-related including B-cell lymphoma/leukaemia-2-associated X protein, B cell lymphoma/leukaemia-2, cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinases, genes of jejunal mucosa, and, to some extents, affected the bacteria community structure and abundance of ileal digesta in piglets. However, Bacillus-based probiotic administration could significantly attenuate the negative effects of rotavirus infection on gut health of piglets.
Conclusion: These findings suggested that supplementing Bacillus-based probiotic in the diet could decrease the diarrhea rate and improve gut health in weaned piglets, which was associated with regulating intestinal antioxidant capacity, apoptosis, and microbiota.
Xiang F, Yang H, Fan X, Tan D, Huang B, Yu B, He J, Luo Y, Luo J, Yan H, Pu J, Wang J, Wang Q, Wang, H, Htoo JK, Mendoza SM, Yan G, Mao X. Dietary supplementation with Bacillus-based probiotic improves gut health in the weaned piglets challenged by rotavirus. Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology. 2025; 16(1):161. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40104-025-01286-7