Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and microbiological profile of 40 piglets (females and males) in the nursery phase. The experimental design was completely randomized, with four treatments, five replicates and sex as a blocking factor. The treatments were distributed in: T1 (control); T2 (Plant Extract as PE, 500 ppm); T3 (Amoxicillin as A, 20 mg kg-1) and T4 (PE+A, 500 ppm + 20 mg kg-1). There was no influence (P > 0.01), between treatments for both the initial and the final weight and average daily gain, but the control group males had an average daily feed intake of 1.8% or higher (P < 0.01) compared to other treatments. The total count control bacterial colonies were 35.9%, 70.9 % and 63.8 % higher (P < 0.01) to treatment with A, PE+A and PE, respectively. For MacConkey test, the treated group A was 88.44 %, 91.78 % and 56.50 % higher (P < 0.01) compared to PE+A, PE and control, respectively. The antibiogram of 48 stool samples had shown that Amoxicillin disk were at 85.7 %, 72.7 %, 44.5 % and 100 % resistant in the control treatments, PE, A and PE+A respectively. The bioflavonoids and ascorbic acid and the interaction with amoxicillin did not alter the performance of pigs in the nursery phase but had reduced the presence of bacterial colonies.