Feeding a Negative Dietary Cation-Anion Difference to Female Goats Is Feasible, as Indicated by the Non-Deleterious Effect on Rumen Fermentation and Rumen Microbial Population and Increased Plasma Calcium Level.

The dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) has been receiving increased attention in recent years; however, information on rumen fermentation, cellulolytic bacteria populations, and microbiota of female goats fed a negative DCAD diet is less. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of feeding a negative DCAD diet for goats with emphasis on rumen fermentation parameters, cellulolytic bacteria populations, and microbiota. Eighteen female goats were randomly blocked to 3 treatments of 6 replicates with 1 goat per replicate. Animals were fed diets with varying DCAD levels at +338 (high DCAD; HD), +152 (control; CON), and -181 (low DCAD; LD). This study lasted 45 days with a 30-d adaption and 15-d trial period. The results showed that the different DCAD levels did not affect the rumen fermentation parameters including pH, buffering capability, acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, sum of acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid, or the ratio of acetic acid/propionic acid (p > 0.05). The 4 main ruminal cellulolytic bacteria populations containing Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, and Ruminococcus albus did not differ from DCAD treatments (p > 0.05). There was no difference in bacterial richness and diversity indicated by the indices Chao, Abundance Coverage-based Estimator (Ace), or Simpson and Shannon, respectively (p > 0.05), among 3 DCAD levels. Both principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) weighted UniFrac distance and unweighted UniFrac distance showed no difference in the composition of rumen microbiota for CON, HD, and LD (p > 0.05). At the phylum level, Bacteroidetes was the predominant phylum followed by Firmicutes, Synergistetes, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetae, and Tenericutes, and they showed no difference (p > 0.05) in relative abundances except for Firmicutes, which was higher in HD and LD compared to CON (p < 0.05). At the genus level, the relative abundances of 11 genera were not affected by DCAD treatments (p > 0.05). The level of DCAD had no effect (p > 0.05) on growth performance (p > 0.05). Urine pH in LD was lower than HD and CON (p < 0.05). Goats fed LD had higher plasma calcium over HD and CON (p < 0.05). In summary, we conclude that feeding a negative DCAD has no deleterious effects on rumen fermentation and rumen microbiota and can increase the blood calcium level, and is therefore feasible for female goats.

Expression of progesterone receptor in the cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat / 解剖学报

Objective In order to explore whether neurons in the cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat were equipped with the condition for the role of progesterone .Methods Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expression of progesteron receptor ( PR) in cervicothoracic ganglion of female goats .Results The result indicated that PR-immunoreactive-products were mainly present in the cell bodies of neurons , and satellite cells , Schwann cells , neurapophysis and nerve fiber also had weaker staining .The cell membrane and cytoplasm of neurons represented brown as strong positive ,but the nucleus of neurons showed the presence of heterogeneity , 85.10% neurons ’ nucleus was strong positive,of which 31.91%nucleolus being clear vacuoles were negative;14.90%nucleus displaying vacuolization had no shaining, of which 7.45%nucleolus was strong positive .There were weak positive and flaxen PR-immunoreactive-products in satellite cells, Schwann cells, neurapophysis and nerve fiber .Image analysis shows that PR of neurons was extremely significant compared with other non-nerve cells ( P <0.01 ) . Conclusion The result proved that the sympathetic postganglionic neurons in cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat were the one of main target cells of progesterone ,suggesting that progesterone may be involving in the neuroregulation of cardiac functional activities through affectinng the activities of neurons in the cervicothoracic ganglion of female goat ,and PR in the cervicothoracic ganglion may act as a network node to coordinate endocrine regulation of progesterone and neuroregulation of autonomic nerve on the cardiac functional activities .

Use of Awamori-pressed Lees and Tofu Lees as Feed Ingredients for Growing Female Goats.

Okinawan Awamori is produced by fermenting steamed indica rice with black mold, yeast, and water. Awamori-pressed lees is a by-product of the Awamori production process. Tofu lees is a by-product of the Tofu production process. This research consisted of two experiments conducted to elucidate whether or not dried Awamori-pressed lees and Tofu lees can be used as a mixed feed ingredient for raising female goats. In experiment 1, digestion trials were conducted to ascertain the nutritive values of dried Awamori-pressed lees and dried Tofu lees for goats. The digestible crude protein (DCP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) contents of dried Awamori-pressed lees and Tofu lees were 22.5%, 22.5% (DCP), and 87.2%, 94.4% (TDN) respectively. In experiment 2, 18 female goats (Japanese Saanen×Nubian, three months old, body weight 15.4±0.53 kg) were divided into three groups of six animals (control feed group (CFG), Awamori-pressed lees mixed feed group (AMFG), Tofu lees mixed feed group (TMFG)). The CFG control used feed containing 20% soybean meal as the main protein source, while the AMFG and TMFG treatments used feed mixed with 20% dried Awamori-pressed lees or dried Tofu lees. The groups were fed mixed feed (volume to provide 100 g/d increase in body weight) twice a day (10:00, 16:00). The klein grass hay and water was given ad libitum. The hay intake was measured at 08:00 and 16:00. Body weight and size measurements were taken once a month. At the end of the experiment, a blood sample was drawn from the jugular vein of each animal. The DCP and TDN intakes in AMFG and TMFG showed no significant difference to the CFG. Cumulative measurements of growth in body weight, withers height, chest depth, chest girth, and hip width over the 10 mo period in the AMFG and TMFG were similar to the CFG. By contrast, cumulative growth in body length and hip height in the AMFG and TMFG tended to be larger than the CFG. Cumulative growth in chest width in the AMFG was significantly larger (p<0.05) than the CFG. Blood parameter values were similar to those in normal goats reported by other scientists. The coats of the AMFG and TMFG animals looked shinier than the animals in the CFG. The results demonstrate that dried Awamori-pressed lees and Tofu lees can be used as a feed ingredient for the raising female goats.