Intestinal health of squab pigeons responded to parental dietary protein levels during breeding period.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary crude protein (CP) levels on intestinal antioxidant status, tight junction proteins expression, and amino acids transporters levels in squabs. A total of 180 pairs of White King parent pigeons approximately 10 mo old were randomly assigned to 5 groups with 6 replications of 6 pairs of parental pigeons each, and were fed with 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18% CP diets for 46 d, respectively. Dietary increasing CP levels increased final body weight (linear and quadratic, P < 0.05), serum urea nitrogen (linear, P<0.05) and triglyceride levels (quadratic, P < 0.05), and reduced kidney relative weight (quadratic, P < 0.05) in squabs. Final body weight of squabs in the 18% CP diet group was higher than that of the 14, 15, and 16% CP diet groups (P < 0.05) but was similar to that of the 17% CP diet group (P > 0.05). Increasing dietary CP levels reduced intestinal malondialdehyde contents (linear and quadratic, P < 0.05) and jejunal total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity (linear, P < 0.05), and enhanced (linear and quadratic, P<0.05) ileal catalase and T-SOD activities in squabs, and these effects were more prominent in the 17% CP diet group. Graded CP levels up-regulated the mRNA expression of intestinal zonula occludens 1 (linear, P < 0.05), solute carrier family 7 members 9 (linear, P < 0.05) and claudin 1 (CLDN1, linear and quadratic, P < 0.05), ileal CLDN3 and solute carrier family 6 members 14 (linear, P < 0.05) but lowered jejunal solute carrier family 6 member 14 (quadratic, P<0.05) mRNA expression in squabs. The effects of dietary CP levels on intestinal tight junction proteins expression were more apparent when its supplemental levels were 18%. These results suggested that increasing parental dietary CP levels ranged from 14 to 18% during breeding period improved growth and intestinal function of squabs, with its recommended level being 17%.

Influence of Bacillus subtilis ANSB060 on growth, digestive enzyme and aflatoxin residue in Yellow River carp fed diets contaminated with aflatoxin B1.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) elicits serious threats to public health due to its widespread occurrence, as well as its teratogenic, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. This study aimed to evaluate the toxicity of AFB1 and assess the ameliorative efficacy of Bacillus subtilis ANSB060 on aflatoxicosis in Yellow River carp. A total of 750 juvenile Yellow River carp were allocated into five dietary treatments for 60 days. Diet C0 represented for the negative control, diet M0 containing about 50 µg AFB1/kg diet represented for the positive control, and diet M0.25, M0.5 and M1.0 was diet M0 supplemented with B. subtilis ANSB060 at a dose of 0.25 × 109, 0.5 × 109 and 1.0 × 109 CFU/kg diet, respectively. The results showed that supplementation of strain ANSB060 restored the reduced body weight and enhanced feed conversion ratio of carp induced by AFB1 towards normal. ANSB060 could also relieve the alterations in hepatic morphology, improve digestive enzyme activities of hepatopancreas and intestine, as well as decrease AFB1 residues in carp's hepatopancreas and gonad. It is concluded that ANSB060 has a protective effect in carp with aflatoxicosis, with a promising potential in feed industrial applications.

Incorporation of a GPI-anchored engineered cytokine as a molecular adjuvant enhances the immunogenicity of HIV VLPs.

HIV vaccines should elicit immune responses at both the mucosal portals of entry to block transmission and systemic compartments to clear disseminated viruses. Co-delivery of mucosal adjuvants has been shown to be essential to induce effective mucosal immunity by non-replicating vaccines. A novel cytokine, GIFT4, engineered by fusing GM-CSF and interleukin-4, was previously found to simulate B cell proliferation and effector function. Herein a membrane-anchored form of GIFT4 was constructed by fusing a glycolipid (GPI)-anchoring sequence and incorporated into Env-enriched HIV virus-like particles (VLPs) as a molecular adjuvant. Guinea pigs were immunized with the resulting HIV VLPs through an intramuscular priming-intranasal boosting immunization route. The GIFT4-containing VLPs induced higher levels of systemic antibody responses with significantly increased binding avidity and improved neutralizing breadth and potency to a panel of selected strains, as well as higher levels of IgG and IgA at several mucosal sites. Thus, the novel GPI-GIFT4-containging VLPs have the potential to be developed into a prophylactic HIV vaccine. Incorporation of GPI-anchored GIFT4 into VLPs as a molecular adjuvant represents a novel approach to increase their immunogenicity.

Effects of Dietary Alpha-lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-carnitine on Growth Performance and Meat Quality in Arbor Acres Broilers.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary alpha-lipoic acid (LA) and acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality in Arbor Acres broilers. A total of 486 1-d-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly allocated to 9 dietary treatments, 9 treatments were group A (0 mg/kg LA and 0 mg/kg ALC), group B (50 mg/kg LA and 0 mg/kg ALC), group C (100 mg/kg LA and 0 mg/kg ALC), group D (0 mg/kg LA and 50 mg/kg ALC), group E (50 mg/kg LA and 50 mg/kg ALC), group F (100 mg/kg LA and 50 mg/kg ALC), group G (0 mg/kg LA and 100 mg/kg ALC), group H (50 mg/kg LA and 100 mg/kg ALC), group I (100 mg/kg LA and 100 mg/kg ALC). Birds were slaughtered at 42 days old. Average daily gain (ADG), average feed intake (AFI), feed conversion rate (FCR), eviscerated rate, breast muscle percentage, thigh muscle percentage, abdominal fat percentage, liver weight, muscle color (L* value, a* value, b* value), pH values at 45 min and 24 h postmortem were measured. Results showed that there existed an interaction between LA and ALC in growth performance of broilers, carcass traits and meat quality. The overall result is that high level of LA and ALC led to lower AFI, ADG (p<0.01), lower abdominal fat percentage, liver weight (p<0.01), lower L* value, a* value, and b* value of breast muscle, L* value of thigh muscle (p<0.05), and higher FCR (p<0.01), eviscerated rate (p<0.01), breast muscle percentage, thigh muscle percentage (p<0.05), a* value, pH 45 min and pH 24 h of thigh muscle (p<0.01). These results suggested that dietary LA and ALC contributed to the improvement of meat quality in broilers.