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As a potential prebiotic, soybean oligosaccharides (SBOS) can improve animal health by modulating gut microbiota. The aim of this study was to investigate the different effects of supplementing SBOS and supplementing SBOS plus probiotic on the growth and health of pigs. Three groups of growing pigs (n = 12) were fed with basal diet (Control), basal diet + 0.5% SBOS (SBOS), or basal diet +0.5% SBOS + 0.1% compound probiotics (SOP) for 42 days. Results showed that SBOS and SOP treatments had positive effects on the pigs in the experiment, and the latter was more effective. Compared with the control pigs, the average daily gain of SBOS group and SOP group slightly increased, SOP significantly increased the serum levels of growth hormone and thyroid hormone T3. Importantly, serum concentrations of immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG and IgM), total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase in both treatments were increased significantly, SOP group most. Moreover, the faecal odour compounds of pigs, especially skatole, were significantly reduced by the treatments. Additionally, SOP significantly increased the diversity and richness of the faecal microbiota, both the treatments increased genera of norank_f_Muribaculaceae and Ruminococcaceae but reduced Lactobacillus. Correlation analysis indicated that Lactobacillus was significantly positively correlated with odour compounds, while Ruminococcaceae was the opposite. Conclusively, synbiotics combined with SBOS and probiotics had stronger promotion effects on the growth and health of pigs.

Efficient microencapsulation of probiotics by most existing methods is limited by low throughput. In this work, Saccharomyces boulardii and Enterococcus faecium were microencapsulated by a method based on emulsion and internal gelation. The growth and survival of microencapsulated microbes under different stressors were investigated using free non-encapsulated ones as a control. The results showed that the prepared micro-beads by emulsion and internal gelation exhibited a spherical and smooth shape, with sizes between 300 and 500 μm. Both S. boulardii and E. faecium grew well and survived better when encapsulated in micro-beads. The survival rates were increased 25% and 40% for microencapsulated S. boulardii and E. faecium respectively when compared with non-encapsulated controls under high temperature and high humidity. The increases of survival rates were 60% for microencapsulated S. boulardii and 25% for E. faecium in simulated gastric juice. And the increases were 15% and 20% respectively when the survival rates of the microencapsulated S. boulardii and E. faecium were determined in simulated intestinal juice. The microencapsulation by emulsion and internal gelation offers an effective way to protect microbes in adverse in vitro and in vivo conditions and is promising for the large-scale production of probiotics microencapsulation.

This trial was conducted to determine the effects of solid-state fermented rapeseed meal (FRSM) on antioxidant functions, serum biochemical parameters and intestinal morphology of broilers. The rapeseed meal (RSM) was fermented with Bacillus subtilis, Candida utilis and Enterococcus faecalis. One hundred and eighty-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into three treatments: a corn-soybean meal based diet and two experimental diets in which the control diet was supplemented with 10.9% RSM or 9.41% FRSM. Results showed that the fermentation process can effectively increase crude protein or small peptides level, and decrease crude fiber level, glucosinolate, isothiocyanate, tannin and phytic acid level in RSM. The levels of serum total antioxidative capacity, total superoxide dismutase, total protein, albumin and glucose of birds fed FRSM were higher than birds fed RSM on days 21 and 42. FRSM also improved the intestinal morphology of broilers. The results indicate that FRSM can be effe...

The crystal structure of the two-dimensional polymeric title compound, [Pb(C(9)H(4)N(2)O(4))](n), comprises one crystallo-graphic-ally independent Pb(II) atom and one fully deprotonated 1H-benzimidazole-5,6-dicarboxyl-ate (H(2)L) ligand. The Pb(II) atom is seven-coordinated by six O atoms and one N atom from the H(2)L ligands, giving a capped octa-hedral coordination geometry. The structure is a layered two-dimensional coordination polymer extending parallel to (100) with N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds inter-actions between the layers, stabilizing the crystal structure.