Almond shells as a sustainable alternative to commercial insoluble fibre sources in piglets: effects on performance and digestive health

Clicks: 20
ID: 328623
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Steady

Ranked #196 of 847 articles by views in italian journal of animal science

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 847 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract Nutritional strategies have been evaluated to alleviate the negative effects of weaning, including the incorporation of dietary fibre (DF). Dietary fibre comprises soluble and insoluble fractions, both important for intestinal health. This study evaluated the effects of three insoluble fibre (IF) sources—coarse almond shells (AS), wheat bran (WB), and a commercial IF source (CIF)—included in high-NDF diets (12.0%) for weaned piglets, compared with a lower-NDF control diet (NC; 10.2%). All diets were isoenergetic (net energy: 2550 kcal/kg) and isonitrogenous (crude protein: 16.3%). Growth performance, dry matter digestibility, diarrhoea incidence, jejunal gene expression, and jejunal and colonic microbiota composition were assessed 14 days post-weaning. Neither growth performance nor digestibility was affected by treatment (P > 0.05). Piglets fed AS showed lower diarrhoea incidence than NC-fed piglets (0.67 vs 1.67 days; P < 0.05). Jejunal gene expression revealed higher expression of growth factors (EGF, IGF1) in AS-fed piglets than in WB-fed piglets (1.86 vs 0.63, 1.20 vs 0.86; P < 0.05). Dietary treatments also influenced intestinal microbiota composition (P < 0.05). In the jejunum, IF (WB, CIF and AS) inclusion reduced the abundance of Proteobacteria compared with NC (0.31, 0.37, 0.32 vs 7.23%; P < 0.05). At family level, WB increased Lactobacillaceae abundance relative to NC (89.24 vs 42.51%; P < 0.05), whereas CIF and AS showed intermediate values (59.67 and 57.88%). In the colon, microbial communities were affected by both IF inclusion and fibre physicochemical characteristics (P < 0.05). CIF-fed piglets exhibited higher Proteobacteria abundance (5.35%) and lower richness (P < 0.05), while AS (1.81%) produced microbial profiles similar to NC and WB (1.22 and 0.79%). Overall, almond shells, characterised by their high IF content and coarse particle size, reduced diarrhoea incidence, increased jejunal growth factor expression, and promoted a favourable intestinal microbial profile without affecting growth performance or digestibility. These findings support the use of almond shells as a sustainable alternative fibre source in piglet nutrition.
Reference Key
openalex_W7213445020 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Eduardo Ruiz, Silvia Martínez-Miró, Cristian Jesús Sánchez, Lucía Ayala, Ana Montalbán, Josefa Madrid, Nieves Ortega, Fuensanta Hernández
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal italian journal of animal science
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jas/skag299
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag299
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.