Abstract

Author:
Taiwo K. Ojediran, Olalekan Afolabi, Afeez Kehinde, Sadiq Ademola, I. Adewale Emiola

Doi: 10.26480/mahj.01.2023.34.38

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

This study aimed at evaluating the impact of dietary supplemental ascorbic acid on organ weight, villi morphometry, organoleptic attributes, and organ histology of weaned pigs using thirty-two Large white-Landrace crossbred with an average weight of 12.32±0.59 kg. The pigs were grouped into four treatments with eight replicates each. Diet C0 was the basal diet (control). Diets C1, C2, and C3 contained the basal diet with 1g/kg, 2g/kg and 3g/kg of ascorbic acid respectively for seven weeks. The weight of liver, kidney, spleen, heart, and lungs were significantly different (p<0.05) with pigs offered ascorbic acid-supplemented diet having higher values. Also, the villus height, villus width and muscle thickness were significantly influenced (p<0.05) with pigs fed diet C3 having the highest value for villus height and width. The organoleptic properties did not differ significantly (p>0.05). The jejunum villi histology showed that pigs fed diets C0 and C1 were essentially normal while those fed diets C2 and C3 had moderate enteritis. No observable lesions were recorded in the structure of the nephron. Moreover, the hepatic histology of pigs fed diet C1 was essentially normal while those fed diets C2 and C3 showed normal hepatocytes but with moderate sinusoidal congestion. It can be concluded that ascorbic acid supplementation caused increased organ weight, aided villus height and width, and reduced muscle thickness with moderate sinusoidal congestion at up to 3g/kg with no deleterious effects on organoleptic attributes.