{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T09:42:55Z","timestamp":1785404575858,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782259200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["NRF-RS-2023-00275307"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-RS-2023-00275307"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["RS-2025-25429079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2025-25429079"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["NRF-RS-2023-00275307"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-RS-2023-00275307"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/013aysd81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["RS-2025-25429079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2025-25429079"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/013aysd81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Weaning stress and immune challenges can negatively affect the health and performance of young pigs by inducing inflammatory responses. Functional protein sources, such as enzymatically hydrolyzed whole blood (EHB), may help alleviate inflammation and improve immune status during stressful conditions. A total of 20 late-weaned pigs [Landrace \u00d7 Yorkshire \u00d7 Duroc], 42 days of age, with an initial body weight of 15.34 \u00b1 1.17 kg, were used in a 2-week experiment. Pigs were allotted to a 2 \u00d7 2 factorial arrangement with two dietary protein sources [plasma protein (PP) and\/or EHB] and two immune challenges (saline or LPS). The four experimental groups were as follows: (1) Plasma-Sal, PP diet + saline injection; (2) Plasma-LPS, PP diet + LPS injection (100 \u03bcg\/kg BW); (3) EHB-Sal, EHB diet + saline injection; and (4) EHB-LPS, EHB diet + LPS injection (100 \u03bcg\/kg BW). Each treatment consisted of five replicate pens with one pig\/pen. Pigs fed either protein diet with and without LPS showed no (p &gt; 0.05) difference in their nutrient digestibility and microbial population. However, pigs challenged with LPS exhibited a higher (p &lt; 0.05) rectal temperature, with significant differences observed at 6 h and 12 h post-injection (p &lt; 0.001). Dietary effects (p &lt; 0.05) were observed for IL-6 and TNF-\u03b1 concentrations, with pigs fed EHB exhibiting lower values compared with those fed the PP diet following LPS challenge. Consistent with an inflammatory response, pigs challenged with LPS showed elevated (p &lt; 0.05) IL-6 and TNF-\u03b1 concentrations, together with increased white blood cell and lymphocyte counts, at 12 h post-challenge. Moreover, significant (p &lt; 0.05) diet \u00d7 LPS interactions were detected for IL-6 and TNF-\u03b1 concentrations at 6 h post-challenge, indicating that dietary EHB attenuated the inflammatory response induced by LPS. In summary, a diet formulated with EHB showed a reduced effect of LPS challenge in pigs, making it promising as a functional dietary protein source for improving immune resilience in weaned piglets.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life16071049","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T07:57:24Z","timestamp":1782287844000},"page":"1049","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Influence of Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Whole Blood Formulated Diet on Nutrient Digestibility, Fecal Bacterial Count, and Immune Responses of Weaned Piglets Challenged with Escherichia coli Lipopolysaccharides"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Kye Jin","family":"Lee","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Biotechnology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Smart Animal Bio Institute, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vetriselvi","family":"Sampath","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Biotechnology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Smart Animal Bio Institute, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7478-2605","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Whajung","family":"Cho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aaminolab, Sejong-si 30006, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6652-2504","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"In Ho","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Biotechnology, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Smart Animal Bio Institute, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108134","DOI":"10.1016\/j.meatsci.2020.108134","article-title":"Replacing soybean meal with rapeseed meal and faba beans in a growing-finishing pig diet: Effect on growth performance, meat quality and metabolite changes","volume":"166","author":"Egelandsdal","year":"2020","journal-title":"Meat Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"655","article-title":"Alternative protein sources to soybean meals in pig diets","volume":"12","author":"Christaki","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. 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