{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,28]],"date-time":"2026-10-28T19:38:43Z","timestamp":1793216323549,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,25]],"date-time":"2021-11-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637798400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012659","name":"Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Vet. Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>A high-quality protein substitute, <jats:italic>Hermetia illucens<\/jats:italic> (black soldier fly) larvae powder, is rich in protein and often used in animal feed. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and optimal ratio of replacing fish meal with <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae in weaned piglets and to demonstrate the effects on piglets' growth performance, intestinal microflora and immune performance. Forty-eight female weaned piglets were randomly classified into three groups. Each group consisted of eight pens (replicates), with two piglets per pen. Three groups containing different proportions of <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae (0, 4, and 8%) were referred to as C, HI4, and HI8. We first designed a 28-day feeding experiment to detect growth performance; after that, the piglets were induced with oral gavage of enterotoxigenic <jats:italic>Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic> K88 (ETEC K88) and recording diarrhea on day 29 of the experiment. Samples were taken on the 32nd day to detect the effect of <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae on the immune performance of the weaned piglets. <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae replacement did not cause any obvious change in the growth performance nether in HI4 nor in HI8 of weaned piglets with 28 d feeding stage. <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae could improve the intestinal health of weaned piglets by increasing the content of <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic> and reducing the content of <jats:italic>Streptococcus<\/jats:italic>. Compared with C+K88 group, the diarrhea rate was attenuated for the <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> supplemented group. The integrity of ileum villi in HI4+K88 and HI8+K88 groups was better than that in C+K88 group, and the villi in C+K88 group were severely damaged. The expression of <jats:italic>IL-10, Occludin<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Claudin-3<\/jats:italic> in the intestinal mucosa of the HI4+K88 group and HI8+K88 group were significantly increased (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), and the expression of <jats:italic>TNF<\/jats:italic>-\u03b1 was significantly decreased (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05) compared with the C+K88 group. The results of immunoblotting also validated that the same ETEC K88 treatment of weaned piglets enhanced the expression of tight junction protein in the intestinal mucosa of the <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> addition group. ETEC-induced diarrhea will be reduced by the diet of weaned piglets containing <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> larvae, ameliorating the immune performance of piglets. Our results indicates that the optimal dosage of <jats:italic>H. illucens<\/jats:italic> replacement in weaned piglets is 4%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2021.746224","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,1]],"date-time":"2021-12-01T00:36:01Z","timestamp":1638318961000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Dietary Hermetia illucens Larvae Replacement Alleviates Diarrhea and Improves Intestinal Barrier Function in Weaned Piglets Challenged With Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Xinxin","family":"Jin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Boyu","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingming","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingqiang","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xue","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gaijie","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenxiang","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zifan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haidong","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yantao","family":"Lv","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanhua","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"139842","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.139842","article-title":"Manure pretreatments with black soldier fly Hermetia illucens L. 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