Abstract: The present study was performed to investigate the treatment effect of Lianmei dysentery Chinese herbal preparation on diarrhea in weaned piglets challenged with Escherichia coli K88. Seventy-two piglets (21 d old, and initial BW of 4.41 ±0.01 kg) were assigned to 6 groups, which were blank control group, diarrhea model group, low dose group (0.5 mL·kg^-1 BW), medium dose group (1.0 mL·kg^-1 BW), high dose group (1.5 mL·kg^-1 BW) and antibiotics group (0.2% enrofloxacin 2 mL·pig^-1). Piglets were infected a certain amount of Escherichia coli(K88) by oral gavage, except the blank control group, and then treated with the low, medium and high dose of Chinese herbal medicine(containing crude drug 1 g·mL^-1) that was made from Druk Plum(Wumei), Coptis chinensis Franch (Huanglian), Terminalia chebula Retz (Hezi), Cortex Fraxini(Qinpi) in the test groups or with enrofloxacin in the antibiotic group. The curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine preparation for diarrheal illness was observed. The results showed that the cure rate with the traditional Chinese medicine preparation for diarrhea in piglets was 80%. Measured by quantitative real-time PCR, the mean level of ETEC K88 in feces of medium dose group and the antibiotic group was significantly different from that of the diarrhea model group (P<0.05) in the whole treatment duration, the other two groups had no difference from the diarrhea model group (P>0.05). From the observation of intestinal morphology of piglets, the antibiotic group and the medium dose group had the basic integrity of the intestinal tissue structure. Based on the survival analysis for piglets of each group, the medium dose group significantly increased the survival rate of piglets compared with the other groups (P<0.05). The survival curves of diarrhea model group was steeper compared with the other groups, which indicated that traditional Chinese medicine reduced the mortality of piglets.

Key words: Chinese herbal preparation, weaned piglet, diarrhea model, Escherichia coli K88, quantitative real-time PCR, intestinal morphology, survival analysis