Graphical Abstract
Functional amino acids (FAA) are those that elicit a metabolic response independent of their necessity for protein synthesis. Supplementation of FAA may offset growth deficits (Ji et al., 2019; Moreira et al., 2020), boost intestinal immunity (Ren et al., 2020) and improve blood flow to tissues and organs (Peine et al., 2020) through mechanisms that include activation of cellular signaling modules (DeBoer et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2018). The piglet often is faced with health challenges that include exposure to pathogens. A recent study reports that FAA can alleviate partially the negative impacts of Salmonella infection in weaned piglets (Rodrigues et al., 2020). These results provide further evidence of FAA as critical modifiers of intestinal health and antioxidant state.
References
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