The Effect of Coconut Oil Addition to Feed of Pigs on Rectal Microbial Diversity and Bacterial Abundance.

Coconut oil has a high content of lauric acid, which has selective antibacterial activity. This study aimed to explore the effect of coconut oil ingestion on the gastrointestinal microbiomes of pigs. A 14-day-long feeding experiment included 19 pigs in two groups (9 on a normal diet and 10 on a diet supplemented with coconut oil). At the start and end of the experiment, a rectal swab sample was taken from each pig in both groups, and total bacterial DNA was extracted. We used 16S rRNA high-throughput amplicon sequencing to evaluate the microbiome changes during the feeding experiment. A total of 446 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected in the whole sample set. Shannon's indices of bacterial diversity did not change significantly during the experiment. Changes in the bacterial community during the study period and in response to the coconut oil treatment were highly significant (p < 0.001). During the study, an increase in the abundance of Lactobacillus was detected in the group treated with coconut oil. An increase in Alloprevotella, Bifidobacteriales, and Lactobacillales and a decrease in Corynebacterium, Mitsuokella, Psychrobacter, and Pseudomonadales were attributed to the coconut oil treatment. Although the addition of coconut oil to pig feed did not affect Shannon's index of diversity, it had a positive effect on the abundance of bacterial groups that are considered to be commensal and/or probiotic.

Association of HindIII-polymorphism in kappa-casein gene with milk, fat and protein yield in holstein cattle.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effect of genetic polymorphism of kappa-casein on milk production in Holstein cattle. Two hundred and ten Holstein cows were used in this study. We established genotype structure of cattle population and calculated allelic frequencies based on PCR-RFLP analyses. The three genotypes: AA (69.52%), AB (27.62%), and BB (2.86%) were detected. Frequency of allele A was 83.33%, and of allele B 16.67%. The Holstein cattle kept in Slovak Republic exhibit a high value of homozygosity (0.7222) and low values of polymorphism information content (0.2392), effective number of alleles (1.3847) and level of possible variability realization (27.91%). The effect of polymorphism of CSN3 gene on average breeding values for milk production traits, such as yield of milk, fat and protein expressed in kilograms, as well as percentage content of fat and protein in milk, has been assessed. In our assessment of the observed traits' variability's dependence on CSN3 gene polymorphism, we detected a statistically significant difference between genotypes only in case of the average breeding value for the percentage of protein in milk.

Analysis of Slovak Spotted breed for bovine beta casein A1 variant as risk factor for human health.

The goal of work was identification A1 variant of bovine beta casein which involves ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus in human. The digestion of A1beta casein can result in the production of bioactive beta casomorphin-7 (BCM-7); this is not the case with A2. This bioactive peptide has been linked to physiological traits that may elicit effects on components of the vascular and immune systems. The material involved 111 Slovak Spotted breed. Bovine genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood by using commercial kit, and used in order to estimate beta-casein genotypes by means of PCR-RFLP method. The PCR products were digested with DdeI restriction enzyme. In the population included in the study were detected all three genotypes, homozygote genotype A1A1 (14 animals), heterozygote genotype A1A2 (37 animals) and homozygote genotype A2A2 (60 animals). In the total population of cattle homozygotes A2A2-0.5405 were the most frequent, while homozygotes A1A1-0.1261 were the least frequent ones. This suggests a superiority of allele A2 (0.7072) which does not produce BCM-7, and thus is safe for human consumption. The expected homozygosity for gene CSN2 is in the population stated a slight increase in homozygosity (0.5858). This caused a slight decrease in the level of possible variability realization (41.80%), which corresponds to the effective number of alleles (1.7071).