Dietary supplementation with Withania somnifera root powder ameliorates experimentally induced Infectious Bursal Disease in chicken.

Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is an economically important, immunosuppressive viral disease of chicken. Withania somnifera, a well-known Indian medicinal plant and functional food, finds extensive ethnomedicinal and ethnoveterinary use in the subcontinent. Root extracts of Withania somnifera have been shown to inhibit IBD virus (IBDV) in vitro. The effect of dietary supplementation with whole root powder of Withania somnifera was studied in chicken experimentally infected with IBDV. Dietary supplementation with the root powder improved erythrocytic indices, biochemical parameters, bursal weight index, and lymphocyte stimulation indices, and reduced histopathological insult in the infected birds. Viral load decreased to less than one-fourth in the birds receiving dietary supplementation with Withania somnifera root powder. It could be concluded that continued supplementation of IBDV-infected chicken with Withania somnifera root powder alleviated virus-induced stress and histological and immunological alterations and reduced viral persistence in the host.

Structural and functional modeling of viral protein 5 of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus.

Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) is an acute, highly contagious and immunosuppressive disease of young chicken. The causative virus (IBDV) is a bi-segmented, double-stranded RNA virus. The virus encodes five major proteins, viral protein (VP) 1-5. VPs 1-3 have been characterized crystallographically. Albeit a rise in the number of studies reporting successful heterologous expression of VP5 in recent times, challenging the notion that rapid death of host cells overexpressing VP5 disallows obtaining sufficiently pure preparations of the protein for crystallographic studies, the structure of VP5 remains unknown and its function controversial. Our study describes the first 3D model of IBD VP5 obtained through an elaborate computational workflow. Based on the results of the study, IBD VP5 can be predicted to be a structural analog of the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) family of proteins. Functional implications arising from structural similarity of VP5 with host Toll-like receptor (Tlr) 3 also satisfy the previously reported opposing roles of the protein in first abolishing and later inducing host-cell apoptosis.

Nitric oxide induced by Indian ginseng root extract inhibits Infectious Bursal Disease virus in chicken embryo fibroblasts in vitro.

Infectious Bursal Disease is a severe viral disease of chicken responsible for serious economic losses to poultry farmers. The causative agent, Infectious Bursal Disease virus, is inhibited by nitric oxide. Root extract of the Indian ginseng, Withania somnifera, inhibits Infectious Bursal Disease virus in vitro. Also, Withania somnifera root extract is known to induce nitric oxide production in vitro. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to determine if the inhibitory activity of Withania somnifera against Infectious Bursal Disease virus was based on the production of nitric oxide. We show that besides other mechanisms, the inhibition of Infectious Bursal Disease virus by Withania somnifera involves the production of nitric oxide. Our results also highlight the paradoxical role of nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of Infectious Bursal Disease.

Electronic Northern Analysis of Genes and Modeling of Gene Networks Underlying Bovine Milk Fat Production.

Milk fat is one of the most important economic traits in dairy animals. Yet, the biological machinery involved in milk fat synthesis remains poorly understood. In the present study, expression profiling of 45 genes involved in lipid biosynthesis and secretion was performed using a computational approach to identify those genes that are differentially expressed in mammary tissue. Transcript abundance was observed for genes associated with nine bioprocesses, namely, fatty acid import into cells, xenobiotic and cholesterol transport, acetate and fatty acid activation and intracellular transport, fatty acid synthesis and desaturation, triacylglycerol synthesis, sphingolipid synthesis, lipid droplet formation, ketone body utilization, and regulation of transcription in mammary, skin, and muscle tissue. Relative expression coefficient of the genes was derived based on the transcript abundance across the three tissue types to determine the genes that were preferentially expressed during lactation. 13 genes (ACSS1, ACSS2, ADFP, CD36, FABP3, FASN, GPAM, INSIG1, LPL, SCD5, SPTLC1, SREBF1, and XDH) showed higher expression in the mammary tissue of which 6 (ADFP, FASN, GPAM, LPL, SREBF1, and XDH) showed higher expression during adulthood. Further, interaction networks were mapped for these genes to determine the nature of interactions and to identify the major genes in the milk fat biosynthesis and secretion pathways.

HSP70 as a marker of heat and humidity stress in Tarai buffalo.

Heat and humidity stress is a constant challenge to buffalo rearing under tropical climatic conditions. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) constitute a ubiquitous class of highly conserved proteins that contribute to cell survival during different conditions of stress. The present study was carried out in Tarai buffaloes to study the expression of HSP70 in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells during different seasons and establish it as a marker of heat and humidity stress in buffaloes. Blood samples were collected from each healthy, non-lactating and non-pregnant buffalo above 2 years of age, once in the month of January (temperature-humidity index (THI) < 72) and in the month of May (THI > 72). Blood samples were also collected during October (THI = 72) to be used as calibrator/control. Real-time PCR was used to profile the HSP70 gene expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The relative expression values of HSP70 in Tarai buffalo was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) during summer season (2.37 ± 0.12) as compared to winter season (0.29 ± 0.04). The expression positively correlated with changes in physiological parameters like respiration rate (RR), pulse rate (PR) and rectal temperature (RT). In conclusion, it can be said that RR and HSP70 may act as characteristic physiological and cellular markers of heat and humidity stress in buffaloes.

Computational designing of a poly-epitope fecundity vaccine for multiple species of livestock.

Inhibin and follistatin are known to reduce fecundity by inhibiting the actions of activin and FSH. Thus, the immunoneutralization of these hormones is a rational proposal for augmenting reproductive performance. The present study describes a comprehensive computational methodology comprising of a consensus approach of several B- and Th-cell epitope prediction tools for the identification of epitopic regions within the structure of these hormones that can be incorporated into a poly-epitope fecundity vaccine. The proposed peptide (RGD-WSPAALRLLQRPPEEPA-KK-YSFPISSILE) should be effective in multiple animal species, generating good immunological memory.