The consumer of pork products prefers that pork is devoid of antibiotics due to fear of bacteria resistant to antibiotics developing. Pig gut health needs to be good in order to get maximum use out of nutrients and prevent diarrhea occurrence. Prebiotics are of interest but their efficacy is not obvious and their extraction process is expensive. Some non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) from cereal such as the beta-glucans of barley may have prebiotic properties. Large amounts of NSP could be provided from using whole hulless barley and promote gut health. Hulled barleys and oats were digested worse than hulless barleys. Some pathogenic bacteria strains in the upper gastrointestinal tract disappeared when hulless barley was ingested as it generated the production of more short-chain fatty acids. Specialty hulless barleys are health-promotors in swine nutrition.
Hulless Barley as Health-Promoters for Pig’s Gastrointestinal Tract (full article)
