Metabolic and microbial responses in western crossbred and Meishan growing pigs fed a high-fiber diet

Four Duroc x White composite crossbred (21.8 +/- 1.0 kg BW) and four 12-wk-old Meishan purebred (20.7 +/- 1.6 kg BW) growing barrows were used to determine the relative breed differences in metabolic and microbial responses to a high-fiber diet. The pigs were trained to consume 700 g of a diet containing 35% (as-fed basis) dehydrated alfalfa meal once daily. The pigs' daily intakes of DM, N, GE, NDF, and ADF were 610 g, 16.6 g, 2.64 Mcal, 150 g, and 88 g, respectively. On d 12 after surgical catheterization of the portal vein, ileal vein, and carotid artery, a 3-d total urine and feces collection was conducted. On d 24 after surgery, each pig was placed in an open-circuit calorimeter, and its catheters were connected to a system for simultaneous measurements of oxygen consumption by portal-drained viscera and by whole body, and the net portal absorption of VFA after a 24-h fasting and during a 5-h postprandial period. The VFA measured included acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isovaleric, and valeric acids. A second 3-d total urine and feces collection was conducted on d 30 after surgery. There were no differences (P = 0.13) between the first and second collections in apparent total-tract digestibility coefficients for nutrients and N retention of pigs. Compared with Duroc x White composite crossbred pigs, Meishan pigs had lower (P = 0.05) apparent digestibility coefficients for DM, N, NDF, hemicellulose, and N retention, but their portal-drained viscera used a greater (P = 0.05) fraction of whole-body oxygen consumption. No differences (P = 0.12) were found between Duroc x White composite crossbred and Meishan pigs in total viable bacteria and cellulolytic bacteria from fecal samples, in vitro digestibility of alfalfa NDF fractions by fecal inocula, whole-body oxygen consumption, net portal absorption of VFA, total energy of absorbed VFA, and the potential of absorbed VFA for meeting the energy needs for whole-body heat production. These results indicate that, in contrast to previous beliefs, the ability of Meishan growing pigs to utilize a high-fiber diet is not superior to that of Duroc x White composite crossbred growing pigs.     

Effects of dietary yeast extract on turkey stress response and heterophil oxidative burst activity

1. Effective nutritional approaches to counteract the negative effects of stress may provide food animal producers with useful alternatives to antibiotics. In this study, turkeys were fed on a standard diet, or the same diet supplemented with yeast extract (YE), to determine if YE would improve disease resistance in a stress model.

2. At 16 weeks of age, half of the birds were exposed to a bacterial challenge using a coarse spray of the pen environment. A subset of control and challenged birds was also treated with dexamethasone (Dex) prior to challenge (Dex/challenge). At 18 weeks, another subset was subjected to a 12?h transport stress protocol (Challenge/transport). All birds were bled and necropsied the morning after transport. The numbers and proportions of blood cells and the heterophil oxidative burst activity (OBA) were determined. Serum corticosterone (Cort) levels of male birds were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Body weight and gain were increased by YE during week 1.

3. YE decreased mortality and bacterial isolation following Dex/challenge only in females. Cort levels in male turkeys were decreased by YE and Dex treatment. OBA was higher in males and in birds given YE and was reduced by challenge and transport.

4. These results suggest there may be gender differences in the turkey stress response and that dietary YE has potential for modulating the impact of stress on innate immunity of turkeys.     

Blood glucose concentrations in critically ill neonatal foals

Reasons for Performing Study: Critical illness is associated with hyperglycemia in humans, and a greater degree and duration of hyperglycemia is associated with nonsurvival. Hypoglycemia is also seen in critically ill humans, and is associated with nonsurvival. This might also be true in the critically ill foal.
Objectives: To investigate the association of blood glucose concentrations with survival, sepsis, and the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).
Methods: Blood glucose concentrations at admission (515 foals) and 24 hours (159 foals), 36 hours (95), 48 hours (82), and 60 hours (45) after admission were analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the association of glucose concentrations with survival, sepsis, a positive blood culture, or SIRS.
Results: 29.1% of foals had blood glucose concentrations within the reference range (76–131 mg/dL) at admission, 36.5% were hyperglycemic, and 34.4% were hypoglycaemic. Foals that did not survive to hospital discharge had lower mean blood glucose concentrations at admission, as well as higher maximum and lower minimum blood glucose concentrations in the 1st 24 hours of hospitalization, and higher blood glucose at 24 and 36 hours. Foals with blood glucose concentrations <2.8 mmol/L (50 mg/dL) or >10 mmol/L (180 mg/dL) at admission were less likely to survive. Hypoglycemia at admission was associated with sepsis, a positive blood culture, and SIRS.
Conclusions and Potential Relevance: Derangements of blood glucose concentration are common in critically ill foals. Controlling blood glucose concentrations may therefore be beneficial in the critically ill neonatal foal, and this warrants further investigation.     

Detection of Aphanomyces invadans and epizootic ulcerative syndrome in the Murray‐Darling drainage

Epizootic ulcerative syndrome was diagnosed, and the presence of Aphanomyces invadans confirmed, from an outbreak of clinical disease in wild‐caught bony bream (Nematalosa erebi) from the Darling River near Bourke, in New South Wales, Australia, during 2008. This confirms a significant extension of the agent beyond its historical range.     

Further studies on graft-induced off-season flowering and fruiting in mango (Mangifera indica L.)

Summary

Defoliated shoots of cvs Alphonso, Dashehari, Totapari etc. (receptors), could be induced to flower within four weeks during the off-season by veneer grafting them to leafy shoots of the off-season flowering cv. Royal Special (donor) during the non-flowering season. Experiments on defoliating the donor and receptor shoots revealed the crucial dual role of the leaves in flowering. In the ‘floral cycle’, leaves from the donor promoted flowering, whereas leaves on the receptors, in the vegative phase, were inhibitory, and prevented graft-induction of the receptors. Thus, for graft induction, leafy donors and defoliation of receptors were essential. The inhibitory effect of the leaves on the receptors was localized and did not affect flowering of the donor shoots’ The similarity between these findings and those in the herbaceous, day-length sensitive species strengthens the view that flower formation is controlled in the same way in herbaceous and in woody perennial species. A minimum threshold of the floral stimulus appeared to be another requirement for an optimum flowering response. This was concluded from an experiment in which the leafy receptors were defoliated on different dates during the off-season flowering cycle. At the end of cycle, the defoliated receptors produced small panicles, and finally only vegetative shoots, probably indicating sub-threshold levels of the stimulus. Bud activity at the apex in the receptor was also an important pre-requisite for graft-induction. Some veneer-grafted scions which remained dormant during the flowering cycle of the donor and which sprouted much later after the completion of off-season flowering, ‘escaped’ the stimulus and invariably turned out to be vegetative. It is postulated that the cyclic synthesis of the floral stimulus in the leaves in an inductive cycle, and the gap between two such cycles, mainly decides the flowering behaviour of mango cultivars—biennial, annual and multiflowering. Two other requiremets are the absence of non-induced leaves and the synchronization of meristematic activity in the bud with the inductive cycle. Juvenile shoots from one to four year old seedlings could not be graft-induced—unlike the shoots from mature, six year old seeding trees. This juvenility effect continued into the second year when defoliation of the receptor shoots had no effect and failed to induce them to flower.     

Testing of the protective effect of cell-free lyophilized vaccine against Marek's disease in field trials]

The protective effect of a lyophilized vaccine against Marek's disease ("Keramvac"--Pfizer), prepared from a cell-free turkey's herpesvirus (strain FC 126), was compared in field trials with losses in the group of non-vaccinated chickens. Under the indicated conditions, the vaccine had only a 50.86% effectiveness. The possible causes of the reduced vaccination effect are discussed with regard to the pathomorphological and virological findings suggesting, among others, an increased incidence of the symptoms of the classical form of Marek's disease in the population investigated.     

Concentrations and Flow of Free Amino Acids in Ruminal and Duodenal Liquid of Dairy Cows in Relation to Feed Composition,Time of Feeding and Level of Feed Intake

The main purpose of this study was to examine sources of variation in free amino acids (FAA) in the rumen and their relative contribution to the total duodenal amino acid supply. Six cannulated lactating dairy cows fed three concentrate mixtures differing in ruminally degradable intake protein (101, 114 and 134 g kg^-1 dry matter) at two levels of intake (19.3 vs 9.8 kg dry matter day^-1