Brief introduction of astragalus polysaccharide
Astragalus polysaccharide is a kind of polysaccharide extracted, concentrated and purified from the dried roots of leguminous plant Astragalus membranaceus (Astragalus membranaceus is a tonic commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine). It is sweet and mild, and has the effects of strengthening exterior surface, arresting sweating, invigorating qi, promoting yang, inducing diuresis to reduce swelling, expelling toxin and expelling pus. The pure Astragalus polysaccharide is light yellow, the powder is smooth and delicate, and it has obvious hygroscopicity. After a short period of smooth and delicate touch, it will stick to the hand.
Although Astragalus polysaccharide belongs to sugar, it is not as sweet as sucrose and fructose, but it is extracted, so Astragalus polysaccharide can be completely dissolved in water. Through the structural analysis of Astragalus polysaccharides, it was found that the main monosaccharide units were glucose and arabinose.
Biological Function of Astragalus Polysaccharide
1) Physicochemical Effects of Astragalus Polysaccharides
Astragalus membranaceus is rich in resources, low in price, remarkable in effect and low in toxic and side effects, so it has attracted wide attention. Modern pharmacological studies have found that Astragalus polysaccharides not only have antioxidant, anti-atherosclerosis, hematopoietic and neuroprotective effects, but also can achieve antiviral effects by interfering with virus replication and phagocytosis. In addition, Astragalus polysaccharide has the functions of protecting cardiovascular system, regulating blood sugar and blood pressure, and protecting liver and kidney.
2) Astragalus polysaccharide can improve immunity.
The results showed that the content of IgG, IL -2, IFN-α and other immune substances in pigs could be increased by adding Astragalus polysaccharide to their feed, which indicated that feeding Astragalus polysaccharide to pigs could improve their immunity.
3) Astragalus polysaccharide can improve the intestinal function of pigs.
After weaning, the nutritional source of piglets changed from digestible milk to indigestible solid feed, and the intestinal cilia were worn by solid feed, which led to the decrease of digestion and absorption ability of piglets. If the feed is not digested effectively in the intestine for a long time, it will provide enough influence to harmful bacteria. When harmful bacteria multiply in large quantities, piglets will have diarrhea. Studies have shown that feeding piglets with Astragalus membranaceus can improve the morphological structure of pig intestines, protect intestinal cilia and promote the establishment of beneficial bacteria in pigs, thus achieving the purpose of reducing diarrhea.
How can Astragalus polysaccharide be used in pigs to play its best role?
1) Before and after immunization with pig vaccine
Through the follow-up of the vaccine immunization effect of pigs, it was found that although there were no problems in the vaccine immunization program of many pig farms, the final immunization effect was not ideal, and Astragalus polysaccharide had obvious effect on improving the immune factors and antibody levels of pigs. Therefore, the immune effect of pigs can be improved by adding 400g/ ton of Astragalus polysaccharide to their feed from the first 3 days to the fourth day after vaccination.
2) Add sows regularly.
Sows are called the "engines" of pig farms. Only when the sows are healthy can the whole pig farm run in an orderly way. Once sows have problems, they often miscarry and give birth to stillborn and mummified fetuses. If they don't estrus after weaning, the whole pig farm may be paralyzed. The above problems are collectively referred to as "sub-health of sows".
Sub-health sows usually show loss of appetite, decreased food intake, listlessness, rough fur, dull skin, rough and pale skin, bleeding spots or bleeding bands on the neck skin of some sick pigs, unclean face, increased gums, long-term tears, dark yellow urine and hard or even granular feces.
There are many factors that cause sub-health of sows in clinic. Common factors are nutrition, heat stress, antibiotic abuse, mycotoxin poisoning and diseases:
A, nutritional factors, mostly occur in free-range households that feed sows by themselves. Due to unreasonable feed formula, it is easy to cause problems such as insufficient function, lack of protein and lack of trace elements in sow feed, and sow malnutrition will manifest as sub-health symptoms.
B, heat stress, sows are vulnerable to heat stress in summer because of their thick body fat and no sweat glands. One of the important manifestations of heat stress is the reduction of food intake, which will lead to sub-health due to malnutrition of sows in severe cases.
C. abuse of antibiotics. In order to prevent pigs from getting sick, some farmers are used to adding antibiotics to their feed regularly to "protect their health". However, long-term use of antibiotics will damage the liver, kidneys and other organs of pigs, and some antibiotics also have immunosuppressive effects.
D, mycotoxin poisoning, common are zearalenone, aflatoxin, Aspergillus fumigatus, etc. It often exists in moldy corn, bran and other feed materials. If pigs are fed with feed with too high mycotoxin content, pigs will have symptoms such as increased tearing, bleeding spots on their backs or bleeding zones.
E, disease factors, through the detection of pigs, it is found that most sows are infected with pathogens such as wild rabies virus, wild blue-ear virus and wild mycoplasma virus, which will lead to sub-health of pigs.
In order to improve the sub-health status of pigs, it is suggested to add Astragalus polysaccharide 400g/ ton to sow feed and use it regularly every month for 10- 14 days. Through the function of Astragalus polysaccharide, the damaged organs can be repaired, the body resistance can be improved, and virus replication can be inhibited or blocked, so as to improve the sub-health of sows.