In the field of nutrition research, it is important to study an animal that closely mimics what happens in our own bodies. By using an animal for these experiments allows scientists to look at many different examples of what happens, from body growth to how organs function, when different diets are eaten. Because piglets' brains and digestive systems are similar to those of human babies, scientists can better understand the roles that dietary components play within the body and use this information to conduct similar studies in human babies. Animal research is important because a new dietary component must be proven to be safe and effective in animal experiments before it can be tested in humans.
When they were 2 days old, we placed 24 piglets in individual cages to make sure they received the diet we wanted them to eat. Of these pigs, 12 received the control (CONT) diet, which is a standard milk formula for piglets, much like human baby formula. The other 12 piglets received a diet containing the special ingredients (TEST), which was the CONT diet plus 3 dietary components mentioned above—milk fat globule membrane, lactoferrin, and a prebiotic blend.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: PG-13
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2017.00016