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Feeding strategies in early life have been shown to modulate piglet gut health, but effects on disease susceptibility have yet to be explained. We aimed to study effects of dietary-fibre-enriched diets fed to sows around farrowing (transition diet) and to suckling piglets (creep feed) on post-weaning gut health of piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC).

Greenhouse gas emissions from livestock have been at the centre of a worldwide discussion. To achieve tangible results in mitigation strategies, all tools in the available toolset need to be used. One tool is the rumen microbiome, which are partly under the host genetics’ control, and could help explain variation in methane emissions from ruminants. Data on methane emissions and rumen fluid samples were collected from 179 dairy cows from Dutch commercial herds. Genotypes from 70 cows were used to estimate heritability for methane intensity. Our goal was to assess the power of our pipeline, for subsequent application to a bigger dataset, by evaluating the value of adding microbial information to the analysis. Microbial estimates were highly confounded with the effect of farm. Our preliminary results show that our workflow is appropriate and that we will be able to estimate microbiability and heritability when our full dataset becomes available.

In vitro miniaturized and simplified three-dimensional versions of an organ, commonly known as organoids, are an important innovative key technology in human and, more recently, animal research. So far, the in vitro organoid system has been applied on a small number of animals in a research setting. However, to apply the in vitro organoid system on a larger scale for industrial purposes, a high throughput system needs to be developed. The major aim of this research is to pave the way for a high throughput in vitro organoid system of the pig intestinal tract to be used in animal breeding, nutrition, and health. We developed high throughput tools to generate organoids from pig intestines on a large scale. We also looked at different applications addressing intestinal functionality, which allow to accurately phenotype animals for complex traits. Organoid research enables animal breeding companies to switch more quickly towards less animal testing.

The fatty acid content of microalgae, especially the high content of omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6), could enrich eggs when fed to laying hens. Moreover, the properties and bioactive components of omega-3 fatty acids could positively influence the health and production performance of laying hens. In this study, the effects of dried Nannochloropsis limnetica inclusions in diets on yolk omega-3 fatty acid content, laying hen performance, nutrient retention, intestinal morphometry and systemic inflammatory markers were measured. A total of 240 twenty-five-wk-old laying hens were randomly assigned to 5 treatments distributed among 30 pens. Treatment A received the reference diet, while diets in treatments B, C, and D contained the control diet with 1, 2, and 3% microalgae added, respectively. In treatment E, a portion of ingredients of the control diet was replaced with rapeseed meal to induce a mild nutritional challenge, along with an inclusion of 3% microalgae. Compared to the control group the rate of lay increased by approximately 5% (P = 0.039) when birds were fed 2 or 3% microalgae. Furthermore, inclusion of 2 and 3% microalgae resulted in higher feed intake compared to the control group (126, 125, and 119 g/hen/d respectively; P = 0.001). Other performance parameters such as nutrient retention and egg characteristics were not affected by the dietary treatments. The EPA and DHA content of the yolk increased with increasing microalgae inclusion level (P < 0.001). A 2% algal inclusion resulted in 58.3 (EPA) and 603 (DHA) mg per 100 g dry yolk, respectively. Plasma haptoglobin levels of laying hens in both treatments receiving 3% microalgae were almost 3 times lower compared to the control group (1.25 and 1.62 vs. 5.60; P < 0.001), regardless of the inclusion of rapeseed in the diet. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the inclusion of N. limnetica enriches the egg yolk without negati

The purpose of this study was to develop fast dissolving tablets of Aceclofenac using different concentration of super disintegrants. Fast dissolving tablets of Aceclofenac were prepared by dry granulation technique using croscarmellose sodium together with avicel ph as superdisintegrants. The porous granules were then compressed in to tablets by direct compression technique. These tablets were evaluated for drug content, weight variation, friability, hardness, wetting time and dispersion time. All the formulations showed low weight variation with dispersion time less than 90 seconds and rapid in vitro dissolution. The drug content of all the formulations was within the acceptable limits. The optimized formulation showed good release profile i.e. maximum drug being released at all-time intervals compared to other trial batches. It was concluded that fast dissolving tablets with improved dissolution could be prepared by dry granulation method of tablet. Keywords: Aceclofenac, fast dissolving tablet, dry granulation, super disintegrants.&nbsp

This study was designed to address key questions concerning the use of alternative protein sources for animal feeds and addresses aspects such as their nutrient composition and impact on gut function. We used casein (CAS), spray dried porcine plasma (SDPP), soybean meal (SBM), and yellow meal worm (YMW) as protein sources. We have investigated the use of intestinal organoids as a model to test the effects of different protein sources on the intestinal epithelium. Mouse enteroids were exposed to different undigested protein sources (4% w/v, viz. soybean meal, SBM; casein, CAS; spray dried plasma protein, SDPP; and yellow meal worm, YMW) or DMEM as a control. Microarrays were used to detail the global gene expression.