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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2017
The concentration of most plasma acute phase proteins (APP) increases at times of clinical infection in pigs (Murata et al., 2004) and may be used as a marker to describe objectively pig health status. However, whether sub-clinical gastrointestinal infections also induce APP responses is less well known. Here, we have assessed whether experimentally induced sub-clinical post-weaning colibacillosis (PWC) affects the concentration of the two APP, i.e. haptoglobin (Hp) and C-reactive protein (CRP), which are two major acute phase proteins in pigs (Murata et al., 2004). Current research aims to reduce sub-clinical PWC through the development of pig feeding strategies that do not rely on in-feed anti-microbial growth promoters (AGP). One such strategy explores the possibility of temporarily lowering dietary protein content (Wellock et al., 2006). Therefore, an additional objective was to assess whether the APP response observed was sensitive to the level of dietary protein.