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Many producers reseed old pasture (OP) with the objective of improving lamb performance. Old pasture was reseeded with perennial ryegrass plus white clover (RGC), RGC plus chicory (CG), RGC plus tyfon (TG), chicory (C), or tyfon (T) to generate five treatments. In addition, a contiguous block of OP was included in the study for comparative purposes. Lambs (n = 286) were assigned to one of the five treatments plus the section of OP from just after weaning until slaughter. Grazing commenced 45 days after the desiccation of OP for reseeding. All lambs were managed by rotational grazing and drafted for slaughter at a specified target BW. No concentrate supplement was offered during the study. For the RGC, CG, TG, C and T treatments and the OP section, the average herbage NDF concentrations were 524, 473, 402, 352, 256 and 565 (SE 15.4) g/kg DM; total grazing days were 5 213, 4 005, 4 466, 2 262, 3 496 and 3 677 (SE 629.3); BW gain to slaughter was 211, 175, 205, 211, 199 and 203 (SE 9.5) g/day; days to slaughter were 91, 100, 84, 86, 78 and 88 (SE 4.8). Compared to RGC, the C, T, CG and TG treatments had lower herbage NDF concentrations (P < 0.05), and there was no difference (P > 0.05) for BW gain or days to slaughter. Chicory yielded significantly fewer (P < 0.05) grazing days, but tended to give a higher (P < 0.06) carcass weight than RGC. It is concluded that neither reseeding OP with RGC, including either C or T with RGC as a multispecies sward, nor growing pure stands of C or T increased (P < 0.05) lamb BW gain from weaning to slaughter or reduced days to slaughter., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Intestinal atresia is an under-diagnosed congenital defect in cattle. It results in complete occlusion of the intestinal lumen and, unless surgically corrected, results in death or euthanasia of the affected calf. There is limited information on the incidence of this condition or on risk factors, including predisposing alleles, associated with the defect. In this study, active surveillance of 39 dairy farms over 8 years identified 197 cases of intestinal atresia among 56 454 calves born, an incidence of 0.35%. The majority of cases (83%) had occlusion of the jejunum, although cases with blockage of the colon (14%) or anus (4%) were also identified. The defect was twice as common in male as in female calves (p < 0.0001), and was more common in progeny of older cows than in progeny of first or second lactation cows (p < 0.001). Year and farm of birth were also significantly associated with incidence (p < 0.05). The incidence of intestinal atresia was highest among the progeny of three related Jersey sires, suggesting that a gene for intestinal atresia was segregating within this family. Linkage analysis utilising 28 affected progeny of two half-sib putative carrier sires identified two putative quantitative trait loci associated with the defect, on chromosomes 14 and 26, although no clear candidate genes were identified. There was no evidence of a sire-effect among the progeny of Holstein-Friesian sires. However, a case-control genome-wide association study involving 91 cases and 375 healthy controls, identified 31 SNP in 18 loci as associated with the defect in this breed. These data suggest that intestinal atresia in dairy calves is not a simple Mendelian trait as previously reported but a complex multigenic disorder., (© 2023 The Authors. Animal Genetics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Stichting International Foundation for Animal Genetics.)

Sepsis is the body's response to an infection. Existing diagnostic testing equipment is not available in primary care settings and requires long waiting times. Lateral flow devices (LFDs) could be employed in point-of-care (POC) settings for sepsis detection; however, they currently lack the required sensitivity. Herein, LFDs are constructed using 150-310 nm sized selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) and are compared to commercial 40 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for the detection of the sepsis biomarker interleukin-6 (IL-6). Both 310 and 150 nm SeNPs reported a lower limit of detection (LOD) than 40 nm AuNPs (0.1 ng/mL compared to 1 ng/mL), although at the cost of test line visual intensity. This is to our knowledge the first use of larger SeNPs (>100 nm) in LFDs and the first comparison of the effect of the size of SeNPs on assay sensitivity in this context. The results herein demonstrate that large SeNPs are viable alternatives to existing commercial labels, with the potential for higher sensitivity than standard 40 nm AuNPs., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

The potential for porous silica to serve as an effective anti-obesity agent has received growing attention in recent years. However, neither the exact pharmacological mechanism nor the fundamental physicochemical properties of porous silica that drive its weight-lowering effect are well understood. Subsequently, in this study, an advanced in vitro digestion model capable of monitoring lipid and carbohydrate digestion was employed to elucidate the effect of porous silica supplementation on digestive enzyme activities. A suite of porous silica samples with contrasting physicochemical properties was investigated, where it was established that the inhibitory action of porous silica on digestive enzyme functionality was strongly dependent on porous nanostructure, particle size and morphology, and surface chemistry. Insights derived from this study validate the capacity of porous silica to impede the digestive processes mediated by pancreatic lipase and α-amylase within the gastrointestinal tract, while the subtle interplay between porous nanostructure and enzyme inhibition indicates that the anti-obesity effect can be optimized through strategic particle design.

A simple quantitative reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method has been developed and validated for assay determination of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol in hemp oil infused products. The RP-HPLC method was developed and optimized for the mobile phase composition, flow rate, column selection and detector wavelength. An isocratic elution of samples were performed on SOLAS 100 Å C18 150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm column with a mobile phase containing 75/25 acetonitrile/water v/v, with a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min by using an ultraviolet-visible (UV/Vis) detector operating at 214 nm. The RP-HPLC method was validated to meet regulatory requirements which covers specificity, accuracy, range, linearity, precision, system suitability and robustness. The validated assay test method was applied successfully to quantify cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol in commercial hemp oil infused products such as tablets, soft gel capsules, plant extract oils, oral drops, tincture, and beverage enhancers. All the test results were found acceptable as per ICH guidelines, and this confirmed the feasibility of this method for its intended use in regular quality control and assay of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol in hemp oil infused products., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The effects of first-joining age (7 or 19 months) and genotype on ewe performance when joined to lamb at 2 years, and the performance of their progeny, were evaluated using 424 ewes, representing 3 genotypes: Belclare (Bel), Suffolk × Belclare (Suf × Bel) and Suffolk-type (≥75% Suffolk ancestry (Suf75)). Ewes were managed in a grass-based system. Ewes first joined at 7 months were lighter (p < 0.01) at 19 months and immediately post lambing; otherwise, age at first joining had no effects (p > 0.05) on ewes or their progeny and there were no important interactions with genotype. Bel and Suf × Bel had larger litters (p < 0.001) and reared more lambs per ewe joined (p < 0.01) than Suf75. Ewe genotype had no effect (p > 0.05) on proportion failing to lamb, incidence of lambing assistance, lamb mortality, ewe survival to 31 months, or progeny performance. Increasing the body weight of ewes at 7 months of age increased the probability (p < 0.02) of rearing 1 or more lambs at 2 years and there was no interaction with genotype. It is concluded that age at first joining had no negative impact on the performance of ewes or their progeny.