Effects of compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additives on the immune function of weaning piglets

Two different kinds of compound Chinese herbal medicine feed additives were supplemented respectively to the same basic dietary to investigate the effect on the immune function and production performance of weaning piglets.A total of 135 crossed piglets(D×L×Y) with an average body weight of 6 kg were allotted to three groups by weight,sex and litter using a randomized complete block design,one was control group which was added with antibiotics and chemical compound drugs,and the other two were test groups which were added with Chinese herbal medicine feed additivesⅠ,Ⅱ,respectively.There were 3 replicatios for each group.The feeding experiment lasted for 50 days.The results indicated that the daily gain,diarrhea ratio,complement(C3,C4),total protein(TP),albumin(ALB),immunoglobulin,acid α-anphthyl acetate asterase in lymphocyte(ANAE+) and interferon(γ-IFN),interleukin-2(IL-2) in serum of treated weaning piglets significantly increased,as compared to the control group(P0.05),the ratio of CD4/CD8 was very significantly different(P0.01),but there was insignificant difference in CD3,CD4,CD8.It is concluded that Chinese herbal medicine feed additives could enhance the formation of immunoglobin,complement,γ-IFN and IL-2 to improve immune function.