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Background: Long-distance transportation, a frequent practice in the cattle industry, stresses calves and results in morbidity, mortality, and growth suppression, leading to welfare concerns and economic losses. Alkaline mineral water (AMW) is an electrolyte additive containing multiple mineral elements and shows stress-mitigating effects on humans and bovines. Results: Here, we monitored the respiratory health status and growth performance of 60 Simmental calves subjected to 30 hours of road transportation using a clinical scoring system. Within the three days of commingling before the transportation and 30 days after the transportation, calves in the AMW group (n = 30) were supplied with AMW, while calves in the Control group (n = 29) were not. On three specific days, namely the day before transportation (day -3), the 30th day (day 30), and the 60th day (day 60) after transportation, sets of venous blood, serum, and nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from 20 calves (10 from each group) for routine blood testing, whole blood transcriptomic sequencing, serology detection, serum untargeted metabolic sequencing, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The field data showed that calves in the AMW group displayed lower rectal temperatures (38.967 ℃ vs. 39.022 ℃; p = 0.004), respiratory scores (0.079 vs. 0.144; p < 0.001), appetite scores (0.024 vs. 0.055; p < 0.001), ocular and ear scores (0.185 vs. 0.338; p < 0.001), nasal discharge scores (0.143 vs. 0.241; p < 0.001), and higher body weight gains (30.870 kg vs. 7.552 kg; p < 0.001). The outcomes of laboratory and high throughput sequencing data revealed that the calves in the AMW group demonstrated higher cellular and humoral immunities, antioxidant capacities, lower inflammatory levels, and intestinal absorption and lipogenesis on days -3 and 60. The nasopharynx 16S rRNA gene microbiome analysis revealed the different composition and structure of the nasopharyngeal microflora in the two groups of calves on day 30. Joint analysis of multi-omics revealed that on days -3 and 30, bile secretion was a shared pathway enriched by differentially expressed genes and metabolites, and there were strong correlations between the differentially expressed metabolites and the main genera in the nasopharynx. Conclusions: These results suggest that AMW supplementation enhances peripheral immunity, nutrition absorption, and metabolic processes, subsequently affecting the nasopharyngeal microbiota and improving the respiratory health and growth performance of transported calves. This investigation provided a practical approach to mitigate transportation stress and explored its underlying mechanisms, which are beneficial for the development of the livestock industry. 9KT6u9sWWs8ZH5U7yZx1qC Video Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Enterocytozoon bieneusi, the most commonly identified microsporidian species in humans, is also identified in livestock, birds, rodents, reptiles, companion animals, even wastewater. However, there is no information available on occurrence of E. bieneusi in pet chipmunks. The aim of the present study was to determine the genotypes, molecular characterization of E. bieneusi in pet chipmunks, and assess the zoonotic potential. Results: A total of 279 fecal specimens were collected from chipmunks from seven pet shops and one breeding facility in Sichuan province, China. The prevalence for E. bieneusi was 17.6% (49/279) based on nested PCR targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The prevalence of E. bieneusi in chipmunks < 90 days of age was significantly higher than that in older chipmunks; however, differences among different sources and between genders were not significant. Eight genotypes of E. bieneusi were identified, including four known genotypes (D, Nig7, CHG9, and CHY1) and four novel genotypes (SCC-1 to 4). Phylogenetic analysis classified these genotypes into four distinct groups as follows: genotypes D and CHG9 clustered into group 1 of zoonotic potential; genotypes Nig7 and CHY1 clustered into group 6 and a new group, respectively; the four novel genotypes (SCC-1 to 4) formed a separate group named group 10. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the prevalence and genotypes of E. bieneusi in pet chipmunks in China. Genotypes D and Nig7, found in chipmunks in this study, have also been previously identified in humans, which suggests that chipmunks might play a role in the transmission of this pathogen to humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Animal acariasis is one of the important veterinary skin diseases. Chemical drugs have been widely used to treat and control this kind of disease. But many chemicals control could increase resistance in target species, toxicity and environmental hazards. We found that the 9-oxo-10, 11-dehydroageraphorone (euptox A) extracted from E. adenophorum has strong toxicity against P. cuniculi in vitro, but the in vivo acaricidal actions of euptox A have yet to be investigated., Results: A 14-day experiment was performed using rabbits that were naturally infested with P. cuniculi on a farm. Rabbits were randomly divided into five groups; animals in groups A, B and C were treated in each ear topically with 4.0 ml of 2.0 and 1.0 g/L (w/v) euptox A, respectively. Animals in groups D and E were treated with ivermectin (by injection; positive controls) and glycerol with water only (by embrocation; negative controls), respectively. Each rabbit was treated twice with separate treatments on days 0 and 7. Rabbits were observed daily and detailed examinations were performed on days 0, 7 and 14, to inspect the presence or absence of mites and scabs/crusts. Seven days after the initial treatment, the mean clinical scores (presence of scabs/crusts) decreased from 3.48, 3.37, 3.43 and 3.45 to 0.37, 0.42, 0.78 and 0.38 in the ears of animals in groups A, B , C and D, respectively, which were similar to the observations recorded in the positive control rabbits. However, the clinical score for negative control rabbits did not increase significantly (P > 0.05) during the experiment, and this changed from 3.32 to 3.37 in the ears, and there were no significant differences in clinical efficacy between left and right ears. After two treatments (0 and 7 d), the rabbits in groups A, B, C and D had recovered completely 14 days after the last treatment and no recurrences of infection were observed., Conclusions: These results indicate that euptox A was potent compounds for the effective control of animal P. cuniculi in vivo.