Immune Response of Piglets Receiving Mixture of Formic and Propionic Acid Alone or with Either Capric Acid or Bacillus Licheniformis after Escherichia coli Challenge

Table 7

Effect of organic acid or organic acid supplemented with either capric acid or Bacillus Licheniformis on fecal pH values and microbial counts (log₁₀ CFU/g) of piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.

Item	Treatments					SEM	P-value
	CON	ATB	OA	OA + CRA	OA + PB
0 HPC^1
pH	6.93	6.76	6.71	6.74	6.65	0.06	0.700
Total coliforms	7.32	7.15	7.48	7.22	7.04	0.11	0.777
Lactobacillus	8.14	8.58	8.59	8.20	9.01	0.15	0.410
24 HPC
pH	7.60	7.39	7.28	7.26	7.39	0.05	0.331
Total coliforms	7.71	7.28	7.17	7.13	6.98	0.12	0.489
Lactobacillus	8.15	8.33	8.41	8.37	7.93	0.15	0.867
48 HPC
pH	7.47	7.41	7.23	7.29	7.20	0.04	0.298
Total coliforms	7.26	7.12	7.19	7.08	6.67	0.17	0.872
Lactobacillus	8.71	8.63	8.43	8.10	8.39	0.15	0.833

CON = basal diet; ATB = basal diet plus antibiotics; OA = basal diet plus 1% organic acid; OA + CRA = basal diet plus 1% organic acid + 0.2% capric; OA + PB = basal diet plus 1% organic acid + 0.02% probiotic (3.3×10⁶ viable spores of Bacillus Licheniformis per gram of feed).
¹ HPC: hours after challenge.