In pig production, early weaning strategy is typically applied to improve the breeding efficiency of pigs. However, piglets have underdeveloped intestinal systems before and after weaning, with low activity of enzymes such as lipase, which results in poor digestion, absorption, wastage of nutrients and diarrhea (
Fig. 1). In addition, weaning stress damages the intestinal barrier function of piglets and affects their physiological functions, especially their digestive and absorptive functions, and thus lowering the absorption of fat. The integrity of intestinal morphology and structure is the basis for the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the intestine. Stress and inadequate energy intake induce intestinal barrier damage in piglets, leading to intestinal inflammation, a reduction in the effective absorption area of nutrients, malabsorption of nutrients and poor growth performance (
Kwak et al., 2022;
Liu et al., 2019;
Yamamoto et al., 2018). Weaning stress can also increase the risk of diseases caused by bacteria such as
Escherichia coli and
Salmonella, disrupt the gut microbiota, reduce the digestion and absorption of fat, and cause post-weaning diarrhea (
Gresse et al., 2017;
Liu et al., 2019;
Yang et al., 2019). Furthermore, diarrhea activates the NF-κB signaling pathway, which regulates the inflammatory response and markedly diminishes the absorption of intestinal fatty acids in piglets, particularly medium-chain fatty acids (
Zong et al., 2019). Under stress, the activity of lipase is significantly decreased, with pancreatic lipase activity at weaning only 1/300 of that at 8 weeks of age (
Corring et al., 1978). After weaning, lipase activity reaches its lowest point on day 5 and then begins to rise from day 7 to 9, but it still does not reach the pre-weaning levels (
Hedemann and Jensen, 2004). The abundance of small intestine fatty acid transport protein also significantly decreases on day 3 and 7 after weaning, which weaken the digestion and absorption of lipids in the intestine (
He et al., 2022). Moreover, piglet diet changes from liquid milk, which is rich in easily digested and absorbed fat (with an apparent digestibility rate of 96%) to solid feed with less fat content, causing a decrease in feed and energy intake after weaning (
Lallès et al., 2007). Fat is one of nutrients that has the greatest change in the weaning period and the damage to intestinal function significantly affected the absorption and metabolism of nutrients such as fat, carbohydrates and proteins after weaning (
Shao et al., 2022;
Yang et al., 2019). These all seriously affect the digestion, absorption and utilization of lipid substances in piglet feed, leading to insufficient energy intake and intestinal barrier dysfunction, exacerbating the weaning stress of piglets (
Capurso et al., 2019;
Hedemann and Jensen, 2004). When piglets cannot obtain sufficient energy from feed, they can only mobilize the body fat to meet their energy needs. However, the host fat reserves of weaning piglets cannot provide sufficient energy to meet their survival and growth needs (
de Albuquerque Maia et al., 2014;
He et al., 2018). Furthermore, during rapid growth and development stage after weaning, the increase in fat absorption of piglet can provide enough energy to improve improving piglets' stress resistance and later-stage fat deposition (
Luo et al., 2018;
Sarr et al., 2010;
Yu et al., 2017).