Dietary ferrous glycinate supplementation reshapes the gut microbiota and improves intestinal barrier function in weaned piglets by reducing luminal iron accumulation

Description

Yilong Zhang and co-authors test a different iron supplement for weaned piglets in a 2026 feeding study. Young pigs need iron, but the usual supplement, ferrous sulfate, is poorly absorbed, and leftover iron in the gut feeds harmful bacteria. The team replaced it with ferrous glycinate, a form the body absorbs more readily, at lower doses.

Thirty piglets were split into three diets: the standard sulfate dose or glycinate at fifty or seventy-five milligrams per kilogram of feed. Growth stayed equal across groups even though the glycinate diets carried up to half the iron dose of the standard. Gut barrier measures improved, and blood tests showed more efficient iron transport. Microbe sequencing found more beneficial Lactobacillus and Akkermansia and fewer Proteobacteria, a group rich in pathogens. The authors explain that less leftover iron in the hindgut starves harmful bacteria of a resource they need.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13251694