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This study investigated the fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) on growth performance and meat quality in broilers. Total 160 Xianghuang broilers aged 2 months were randomly assigned into 2 groups, CON (control), FOS (supplemented 0.5% fructo-oligosaccharides in diet). After 38 days, the breast, thigh muscle and liver samples were collected for further analysis. Results showed that no significant effect of 0.5% FOS on growth performance such as average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) or feed-to-gain ratio (F:G) were observed (P > 0.05). Broilers in FOS group had a yellower breast than that in CON group (P

Abstract Valine is an essential amino acid and a type of branched-chain amino acid. Due to the involvement of branched-chain amino acids in various metabolic pathways, there has been a surge of interests in valine nutrition and its role in animal physiology. In pigs, the interactions between valine and other branched-chain amino acids or aromatic amino acids are complex. In this review, we delve into the interaction mechanism, metabolic pathways, and biological functions of valine. Appropriate valine supplementation not only enhances growth and reproductive performances, but also modulates gut microbiota and immune functions. Based on past observations and interpretations, we provide recommended feed levels of valine for weaned piglets, growing pigs, gilts, lactating sows, barrows and entire males. The summarized valine nutrient requirements for pigs at different stages offer valuable insights for future research and practical applications in animal husbandry.

In swine production, stress is a common encounter that leads to serious bacterial infection and adverse effects on growth performance. Though antibiotics have been frequently used to control pathogen spread, sustained negative impacts from antibiotics have been found to affect intestinal integrity and the immune system. Multiple nutritional strategies have shown potential to counteract stress and replace antibiotics, including functional amino acids, low protein diet, plant extracts, organic acids, prebiotics, probiotics, minerals and vitamins. These additives relieve the stress response in swine via different mechanisms and signal transduction pathways. Based on the overview of signaling pathways and stress models, this review highlights the potential of nutritional strategies in swine for preventing or treating stress-related health problems. For wider application in the pig industry, the dose ranges measured require for further validation in different physiological contexts and formulations. In the future, microfluid devices and novel stress models are expected to enhance the efficiency of screening for new anti-stress candidates.

Abstract Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) have been used to cure diseases for thousands of years. However, the bioactive ingredients of CHM are complex, and some CHM natural products cannot be directly absorbed by humans and animals. Moreover, the contents of most bioactive ingredients in CHM are low, and some natural products are toxic to humans and animals. Fermentation of CHM could enhance CHM bioactivities and decrease the potential toxicities. The compositions and functions of the microorganisms play essential roles in CHM fermentation, which can affect the fermentation metabolites and pharmaceutical activities of the final fermentation products. During CHM fermentation, probiotics not only increase the contents of bioactive natural products, but also are beneficial for the host gut microbiota and immune system. This review summarizes the advantages of fermentation of CHM using probiotics, fermentation techniques, probiotic strains, and future development for CHM fermentation. Cutting‐edge microbiome and synthetic biology tools would harness microbial cell factories to produce large amounts of bioactive natural products derived from CHM with low‐cost, which would help speed up modern CHM biomanufacturing.

Abstract Background In modern animal husbandry, breeders pay increasing attention to improving sow nutrition during pregnancy and lactation to favor the health of neonates. Sow milk is a main food source for piglets during their first three weeks of life, which is not only a rich repository of essential nutrients and a broad range of bioactive compounds, but also an indispensable source of commensal bacteria. Maternal milk microorganisms are important sources of commensal bacteria for the neonatal gut. Bacteria from maternal milk may confer a health benefit on the host. Methods Sow milk bacteria were isolated using culturomics followed by identification using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. To screen isolates for potential probiotic activity, the functional evaluation was conducted to assess their antagonistic activity against pathogens in vitro and evaluate their resistance against oxidative stress in damaged Drosophila induced by paraquat. In a piglet feeding trial, a total of 54 newborn suckling piglets were chosen from nine sows and randomly assigned to three treatments with different concentrations of a candidate strain. Multiple approaches were carried out to verify its antioxidant function including western blotting, enzyme activity analysis, metabolomics and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Results The 1240 isolates were screened out from the sow milk microbiota and grouped into 271 bacterial taxa based on a nonredundant set of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Among 80 Pediococcus isolates, a new Pediococcus pentosaceus strain (SMM914) showed the best performance in inhibition ability against swine pathogens and in a Drosophila model challenged by paraquat. Pretreatment of piglets with SMM914 induced the Nrf2-Keap1 antioxidant signaling pathway and greatly affected the pathways of amino acid metabolism and lipid metabolism in plasma. In the colon, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus was significantly increased in the high dose SMM914 group compared with the control group. Conclusion P. pentosaceus SMM914 is a promising probiotic conferring antioxidant capacity by activating the Nrf2-Keap1 antioxidant signaling pathway in piglets. Our study provided useful resources for better understanding the relationships between the maternal microbiota and offspring. Video Abstract

Pathogenic enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a major cause of bacterial diarrhea in weaning piglets, which are vulnerable to changes in environment and feed. This study aimed to determine the effects of the ETEC challenge on piglet growth performance, diarrhea rate, jejunal microbial profile, jejunal morphology and goblet cell distribution. A total of 13 piglets from one litter were selected on postnatal day 21 and assigned to treatments with or without ETEC challenge at 1 × 108 CFUs, as ETEC group or control group, respectively. On postnatal day 28, samples were collected, followed by the detection of serum biochemical indexes and inflammatory indicators, HE staining, PAS staining and 16S rDNA gene amplicon sequencing. Results showed that the growth performance decreased, while the diarrhea rate increased for the ETEC group. The jejunum is the main segment of the injured intestine during the ETEC challenge. Compared with the control, the ETEC group displayed fewer goblet cells in the jejunum, where goblet cells are more distributed at the crypt and less distributed at the villus. In addition, ETEC piglets possessed higher abundances of the genus Desulfovibrio, genus Oxalobacter and genus Peptococus and lower abundances of the genus Prevotella 2, genus Flavonifractor and genus Blautra. In terms of alpha diversity, Chao 1 and observed features indexes were both increased for the ETEC group. Our study provides insights into jejunal histopathological impairment and microbial variation in response to ETEC infection for weaned piglets and is a valuable reference for researchers engaged in animal health research to select stress models.

ABSTRACT Gut microbes can affect host adaptation to various environment conditions. Escherichia coli is a common gut species, including pathogenic strains and nonpathogenic strains. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different E. coli strains in the gut on the health of pigs. In this study, the complete genomes of two E. coli strains isolated from pigs were sequenced. The whole genomes of Y18J and the enterotoxigenic E. coli strain W25K were compared to determine their roles in pig adaptation to disease. Y18J was isolated from feces of healthy piglets and showed strong antimicrobial activity against W25K in vitro. Gene knockout experiments and complementation analysis followed by modeling the microbe-microbe interactions demonstrated that the antagonistic mechanism of Y18J against W25K relied on the bacteriocins colicin B and colicin M. Compared to W25K, Y18J is devoid of exotoxin-coding genes and has more secondary-metabolite-biosynthetic gene clusters. W25K carries more genes involved in genome replication, in accordance with a shorter cell cycle observed during a growth experiment. The analysis of gut metagenomes in different pig breeds showed that colicins B and M were enriched in Laiwu pigs, a Chinese local breed, but were scarce in boars and Duroc pigs. IMPORTANCE This study revealed the heterogeneity of E. coli strains from pigs, including two strains studied by both in silico and wet experiments in detail and 14 strains studied by bioinformatics analysis. E. coli Y18J may improve the adaptability of pigs toward disease resistance through the production of colicins B and M. Our findings could shed light on the pathogenic and harmless roles of E. coli in modern animal husbandry, leading to a better understanding of intestinal-microbe–pathogen interactions in the course of evolution.

Abstract Background Probiotics are being considered as valuable microorganisms related to human health. Hu sheep is referred as one of the important sheep breeds in China. Goat milk produced by Hu sheep is characterized with high nutritional value and hypoallergenic in nature. Particularly, this milk contains plenty of milk prebiotic and probiotic bacteria. This study was aimed to scrutinize more bacterial strains from Hu sheep milk with potential probiotic activity. Results Based on 16S rRNA sequence analysis, pool of forty bacterial strains were identified and evaluated their antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and Aeromonas caviae. Four out of these isolated strains demonstrated their efficient bacteriostatic ability and potential healthy properties. We also examined the safety aspects of these bacterial candidates including three Lactococcus lactis strains (named as HSM-1, HSM-10, and HSM-18) and one Leuconostoc lactis strain (HSM-14), and were further evaluated via in vitro tests, including antimicrobial activity, cell surface characteristics (hydrophobicity, co-aggregation, and self-aggregation), heat treatment, antibiotic susceptibility, simulated transport tolerance in the gastrointestinal tract, and acid/bile tolerance. The obtained results revealed that HSM-1, HSM-10, HSM-14, and HSM-18 showed high survival rate at different conditions for example low pH, presence of bovine bile and demonstrated high hydrophobicity. Moreover, HSM-14 had an advantage over other strains in terms of gastrointestinal tract tolerance, antimicrobial activities against pathogens, and these results were significantly better than other bacterial candidates. Conclusion Hu sheep milk as a source of exploration of potential lactic acid bacteria (LAB) probiotics open the new horizon of probiotics usage from unconventional milk sources. The selected LAB strains are excellent probiotic candidates which can be used for animal husbandry in the future. Rationale of the study was to utilize Hu sheep milk as a source of potential probiotic LABs. The study has contributed to the establishment of a complete bacterial resource pool by exploring the Hu sheep milk microflora.

Weaning of piglets could increase the risk of infecting with Gram-negative pathogens, which can further bring about a wide array of virulence factors including the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). It is in common practice that the use of antibiotics has been restricted in animal husbandry. Alkaline phosphatase (AKP) plays an important role in the detoxification and anti-inflammatory effects of LPS. This study investigated the protective effects of AKP on intestinal epithelial cells during inflammation. Site-directed mutagenesis was performed to modulate the AKP activity. The enzyme activity tests showed that the activity of the DelSigD153G-D330N mutants in B. subtilis was nearly 1,600 times higher than that of the wild-type AKP. In this study, an in vitro LPS-induced inflammation model using IPEC-J2 cells was established. The mRNA expression of interleukin-(IL-) 6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were extremely significantly downregulated, and that of ASC amino acid transporter 2 (ASCT-2), zonula occludens protein-1 (ZO-1), and occludin-3 (CLDN-3) were significantly upregulated by the DelSigD153G-D330N mutant compared with LPS treatment. This concludes the anti-inflammatory role of AKP on epithelial membrane, and we are hopeful that this research could achieve a sustainable development for the pig industry.

The abuse of antibiotics has become a serious health challenge in the veterinary field. It creates environmental selection pressure on bacteria and facilitates the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance genes. The speed of discovery and application of cost-effective alternatives to antibiotics is slow in pig production. Natural products from biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) represent promising therapeutic agents for animal and human health and have attracted extraordinary passion from researchers due to their ability to participate in biofilm inhibition, stress resistance, and the killing of competitors. In this study, we detected the presence of diverse secondary metabolite genes in porcine intestines through sequence alignment in the antiSMASH database. After comparing variations in microbial BGCs’ composition between the ileum and the colon, it was found that the abundance of the resorcinol gene cluster was elevated in the ileal microbiome, whereas the gene cluster of arylpolyene was enriched in the colonic microbiome. The investigation of BGCs’ diversity and composition differences between the ileal and colonic microbiomes provided novel insights into further utilizing BGCs in livestock. The importance of BGCs in gut microbiota deserves more attention for promoting healthy swine production.

Trace minerals are extremely important for balanced nutrition, growth, and development in animals and humans. Phytic acid chelation promotes the use of probiotics in nutrition. The phytic acid-degrading strain Lactococcus lactis psm16 was obtained from swine milk by enrichment culture and direct plate methods. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the strain psm16 on mineral element content in a mouse model. Mice were divided into four groups: basal diet, 1% phytic acid, 1% phytic acid + psm16, 1% phytic acid + 500 U/kg commercial phytase. Concentrations of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and total short-chain fatty acids were significantly increased in the strain psm16 group compared to the phytic acid group. The concentrations of copper (p = 0.021) and zinc (p = 0.017) in liver, calcium (p = 0.000), manganese (p = 0.000), and zinc (p = 0.000) in plasma and manganese (p = 0.010) and zinc (p = 0.022) in kidney were significantly increased in psm16 group, while copper (p = 0.007) and magnesium (p = 0.001) were significantly reduced. In conclusion, the addition of phytic acid-degrading bacteria psm16 into a diet including phytic acid can affect the content of trace elements in the liver, kidney, and plasma of mice, counteracting the harmful effects of phytic acid.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary isatidis root polysaccharide (IRP) on diarrhea, immunity, and intestinal health in weanling piglets. Forty healthy piglets were randomly assigned to five groups receiving varying dosages of IRP. The findings indicated that different concentrations of IRP significantly reduced diarrhea scores (p

Biodegradable copolymers of L-lactic acid and ε-caprolactone [P(LLA-CL)s] were prepared in sulfonic acid-functionalized Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (SFBAILs) with very different anions and cations. SFBAILs work as both solvents and catalysts. The copolymerization process was proved to be a combination of polycondensation and simultaneous transesterification after a fast ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone through a kinetic study. Copolymers with different monomer ratios were obtained. We found that the anions rather than the cations of SFBAILs have a great impact on the polymerizations. In addition, SFBAILs can be simply recovered by phase separation and recycled without decreasing the efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]