Objective Effects of including Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) and/or Enterococcus faecium (Ef) in diet on the growth, plasma antioxidants, and immunity of piglets were studied.

Method One-hundred-sixty Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire crossbred piglets weighed (9.27±0.14) kg were randomly divided into 4 groups of 5 replicates with 8 piglets in each. The control group (CK) received a basal diet, while T1 fed on a forage supplemented with 1,000 mg·kg⁻¹ of CHM, T2 with 1 000 mg·kg⁻¹ of dried Ef powder, and T3 with both CHM and Ef at 1 000 mg·kg⁻¹ each. The feeding lasted 28 d prior to physiological and biochemical analyses on the piglets.

Result (1) Compared to CK, the piglets in the treatment groups had significantly greater average daily gain (ADG) (P＜0.05), those in T1 and T3 significantly lowered feed-to-gain (F/G) ratios (P＜0.05), and those in T3 significantly fewer cases of diarrhea (P＜0.05). (2) The total plasma antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the piglets were significantly elevated by the treatments (P＜0.05); in T3, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity was significantly higher than the rest (P＜0.05), while T-AOC surpassed that in T2 (P＜0.05). (3) The immunoglobulins, i.e., IgA, IgG, and IgM, and cytokine interleukin-10 were significantly more abundant in the treatment piglets (P＜0.05). In T3, the piglets had significantly less plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-6 than those in CK (P＜0.05) and more IgG than those in T2 (P＜0.05).

Conclusion Synergistically, addition of both CHM and Ef in diet significantly enhanced the growth, antioxidant capacity, and immunological functions of piglets.