Dietary enzymatically treated Artemisia annua L. supplementation improved growth performance and intestinal antioxidant capacity of weaned piglets

Abstract The present study determined the optimal dose of enzymatically treated Artemisia annua L. (EA) and investigated the effect of dietary EA supplementation on the intestinal antioxidant activity of weaned piglets. Firstly, a total of 300 piglets with an average body weight of 5.62 ± 0.36 kg (21 days of age) were randomly allocated to 5 dietary treatments, including CON, EA1, EA2, EA3, and EA4 groups (basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 g/kg EA, respectively). At 50 days of age, growth performance and the incidence of diarrhea were measured. The results showed that average daily gain was significantly increased (P