Abstract: This study was conducted to explore the possibility of the dietary supplementation with herbal residues(HR) in sows.Sixty crossbred pregnant sows with close expected date of delivery during the 2-4 parities were used and randomly allocated to one of three groups,representing the control group,HR group,or fermented HR group,to determine the effects of the HR and fermented HR on faeces microbial population and its metabolites.The results showed that the fecal contents of acetate,propionate,butyrate,straight-chain fatty acids,and total short chain fatty acids(SCFA) at antepartum from the sows in HR and FHR groups significantly increased(P<0.05) and the ratio of branched-chain fatty acids to straight-chain fatty acids dramatically decreased(P<0.05) when compared with the control group;the fecal contents of phenylethylamine at antepartum and tryptamine at postpartum from the sows in HR group significantly decreased(P<0.05);the fecal contents of spermidine,spermine,and Lactobacillus at postpartum dramatically increased(P<0.05),while the population of Escherichia colisignificantly decreased(P<0.05) from the sows in FHR group.These findings suggested that dietary supplementation with the fermented herb residues can improve the balance of intestinal microbial flora,increase the content of SCFA,which can improve the reproduction performance of gestation sows.

Key words: pregnant sows, fermented herb residues, faece, microorganism, metabolites