Effect of Bile Supplementation on Fat Digestion in Early Weaned Pig Diets

Bile salts function to emulsify lipids and fat solubles to form fat-containing micelles to ease absorption from the intestinal tract. However, in animals, including humans, the production and utilization of bile salts is very limited at birth and during early development stages. In humans, insufficient bile has been associated with lipid malabsorption in premature infants (Watkins et al., 1975). The same malabsorption syndrome has been demonstrated in newly hatched chicks (Serafin and Nesheim, 1967). The addition of bile salts to poultry diets has resulted in an improvement of fat absorption in chicks and hens (Edwards, 1962; Gomez and Polin, 1976; Kussaibati et al., 1982).