摘要Intestinal oxidative stress triggers gut microbiota dysbiosis,which is involved in the etiology of post-weaning diarrhea and enteric infections.Ellagic acid(EA)can potentially serve as an antioxidant sup-plement to facilitate weaning transition by improving intestinal oxidative stress and gut microbiota dysbiosis.Therefore,we aimed to investigate the effects of dietary EA supplementation on the attenu-ation of intestinal damage,oxidative stress,and dysbiosis of gut microbiota in weanling piglets.A total of 126 piglets were randomly assigned into 3 groups and treated with a basal diet and 2 mL saline orally(Ctrl group),or the basal diet supplemented with 0.1％EA and 2 mL saline orally(EA group),or the basal diet and 2 mL fecal microbiota suspension from the EA group orally(FEA group),respectively,for 14 d.Compared with the Ctrl group,EA group improved growth performance by increasing average daily feed intake and average daily weight gain(P＜0.05)and decreasing fecal scores(P＜0.05).EA group also alleviated intestinal damage by increasing the tight junction protein occludin(P＜0.05),villus height,and villus height-to-crypt depth ratio(P＜0.05),while decreasing intestinal epithelial apoptosis(P＜0.05).Additionally,EA group enhanced the jejunum antioxidant capacity by increasing the total antioxidant capacity(P＜0.01),catalase(P＜0.05),and glutathione/oxidized glutathione(P＜0.05),but decreased the oxidative metabolite malondialdehyde(P＜0.05)compared to the Ctrl group.Compared with the Ctrl group,EA and FEA groups increased alpha diversity(P＜0.05),enriched beneficial bacteria(Ruminococcaceae and Clostridium ramosum),and increased metabolites short-chain fatty acids(P＜0.05).Correspondingly,FEA group gained effects comparable to those of EA group on growth per-formance,intestinal damage,and intestinal antioxidant capacity.In addition,the relative abundance of bacteria shifted in EA and FEA groups was significantly related to the examined indices(P＜0.05).Overall,dietary EA supplementation could improve growth performance and attenuate intestinal damage and oxidative stress by regulating the gut microbiota in weanling piglets.