Small Ruminant Research最新文献

The objective of this randomized controlled vaccine field trial was to determine the effectiveness of a commercial respiratory bacterin, Ovipast™ Plus, administered to feedlot lambs at weaning, approximately 8 wk of age, to improve animal health, growth performance, and carcass traits. Lambs were weaned, weighed, and sorted into groups by sex and the previous Ovipast™ Plus vaccination status of their mother, because this is stage 2 of that ongoing trial (Gardner et al., 2023). Lambs born to vaccinated ewes were vaccinated with the Ovipast™ Plus bacterin and revaccinated 3–5 wk later. Lambs born to unvaccinated ewes were not vaccinated. During the growing and finishing phases of the trial, vaccination did not reduce pneumonia treatment rates, crude or pneumonia specific mortality rates, or improve growth rates. Vaccinated lambs had a lower carcass fat cover (P < 0.001) and a 1.33 times increased odds of yielding a Grade 1 carcass compared to unvaccinated lambs (P = 0.01). Vaccination reduced carcass fat cover and improved yield grades, but it had no beneficial effect on disease rates or growth performance, suggesting a limited economic benefit of vaccinating lambs post-weaning, which were borne from ewes vaccinated with Ovipast™ Plus during gestation.

Pistachio (PW, Pistacia vera L.) wastes are a collection of favorite materials that are produced in the pistachio processing factories, in combination with its industry derivatives of clusters, soft hull, leaves, hard shell, and kernel. Two experiments were carried out; in the 1st one, the chemical and mineral compositions, in vitro ruminal-digestive fermentation activities, and buffering capacity parameters were determined for PW and its derivatives. For the 2nd experiment, the nutritional effects of an aluminosilicate (AS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), at 10 g/kg dietary dry matter (DM), on PW-based diets were investigated. However, forty Mahabadi male goat kids [5 months, 22 ± 2.0 kg body weight (BW)] were randomly divided into the four experimental diets: control (a basal diet without PW); PW (replaced 40 % of control ingredients with PW); PW + PEG (PW diet + 10 g PEG/kg DM); and PW + AS (PW diet + 10 g AS/kg DM). Crude protein content, dry matter digestibility (DMD), gas production, and metabolizable energy were increased (P < 0.001) in kernel rather than other treatments. Hard shell exhibited the lowest (P < 0.001) DMD and/or organic matter digestibility (at 24 and 96 h), and highest (P < 0.001) neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and iron concentrations. In leaves, total phenolic and tannins, calcium, magnesium, and manganese had the highest (P < 0.001) concentrations versus other PW derivatives. Soft hull has the greatest (P < 0.001) acid-base buffering capacity among the evaluated derivatives. Dietary supplementation with 40 % PW decreased (P < 0.001) dry matter intake, final BW, average daily gain, nutrient digestibility, ruminal total volatile fatty acids, propionate, and acetate, but with an increase (P < 0.001) in those parameters in PW + PEG and PW + AS diets. Blood urea nitrogen and total protein decreased (P < 0.05) by dietary PW. The inclusion of 40 % PW in the diet reduced the growth performance and diet nutritive value, but improved plasma antioxidant status (total antioxidant capacity: and malondialdehyde). Addition of PW in goat kids’ diets with PEG or AS improved the digestibility and ruminal fermentation activities and enhanced growth performance. In conclusion, it is recommended to use PW at the dietary level of 40 % in fattening goat kids, provided that it is accompanied by adding AS or PEG to the diet.

Diarrhea in alpacas is a clinically significant condition and the primary cause of morbidity in neonatal Peruvian alpacas. This study aimed to correlate early diarrhea in crias of alpaca with changes in the microbiota community. A total of 19 alpacas (aged 1–2 months) were collected, including nine with a health condition and ten healthy ones. Fecal samples were obtained under sterile conditions and their DNA was extracted. Sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was conducted in the Illumina platform, followed by bioinformatics analysis. Reduced microbial diversity was evident in alpacas afflicted with diarrhea, delineating contrasting microbial compositions in comparison to their healthy counterparts. The study characterized the predominant bacterial classes and phyla within the gut microbiota, with Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobiota, and Bacteroidota collectively constituting approximately 80% of the total bacterial population. Substantial disparities in these microbial compositions were observed between the two groups, a variance that appeared to be influenced by both age and the health status of the alpacas. The bacterial class Verrucomicrobiae exhibited a significant presence within the group of alpacas suffering from illness. Furthermore, specific pathogenic species such as Clostridium spiroforme, Blautia, and Bacteroides fragilis were detected in significantly higher proportions among the afflicted alpacas. The functional diversity across the two groups was also found to be markedly different, a distinction that is graphically represented in a heat map illustrating the fifty principal differential KEGGs. This study provides valuable insights into the role of gut microbiota in alpaca health and may have implications for veterinary care and management.

To counteract the negative effects of phytotannins, ruminants host a diverse community of bacteria that break down tannins. These bacteria not only possess tanninolytic activity but also have other functional relevance which has not been properly examined. Therefore, the present study was conducted to isolate and characterize tannin degrading bacteria (TDB) with possible fibrolytic activity from rumen of sheep fed tannin-rich diet. Based on the development of a clear zone on tannin-enriched agar plates, a total of 24 isolates were screened as tannin hydrolyzing bacteria. Majority of the isolates were gram positive cocci. The isolates could tolerate phenolic monomers such as ferulic acid, gallic acid, vanillic acid up to 30 mM and pyrogallol up to 10 mM however, the isolates failed to grow in presence of syringic acid, p-coumaric acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Highest tannase activity was observed in isolate TDB23 while, lowest in isolates TDB2 and TDB5. In terms of fibrolytic activity, maximum endoglucanase, exoglucanase, and FPase activity was observed in isolate TDB9. In vitro digestibility of Prosopis cineraria leaves was considerably enhanced by inoculation of isolate TDB23 followed by TDB9. Therefore, the screened isolates demonstrated promising tannin and fibre degrading potential which can be further explored as direct-fed microbial in ruminants for effective utilization of tannin-rich fibrous feeds.

Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae (Mccp) is a dreadful pathogen of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP). Mccp local strains have recently been isolated from naturally infected goats in northern areas of Pakistan. In this study, we established an in-house indirect ELISA (iELISA) based on whole-cell proteins (WCP) of local Mccp strains for the detection of anti-Mccp antibodies. Serum samples from naturally (n=500) and experimentally infected (n=20) and non-infected animals (n=100) were used for the establishment of iELISA. The specificity and sensitivity of the iELISA were determined using a commercially available competitive ELISA (cELISA) kit as a reference standard. The cut-off value (OD₄₅₀) was found 0.53 by ROC analysis. As indicated by a kappa value of 0.88 and 96.66% agreement, both assays showed perfect agreement. An iELISA based on WCP of local Mccp detected seroconversion in experimental goats 7 days post-infection (dpi). The iELISA revealed a sensitivity of 90.83% (95% CI: 83.77%, 95.55%) and a specificity of 92.31% (95% CI: 84.79%, 96.85%) and has no cross-reaction with related mycoplasma epidemic diseases. For both inter-assay and intra-assay precision, the iELISA percentage coefficient of variation (%CV) was 4.8% and 1.74%, respectively. In conclusion, this in-house iELISA based on local Mccp-WCP was determined as a sensitive and specific assay for the diagnosis of Mccp infection.

Ultrasonography was used to determine the subcutaneous backfat deposition of Boer goat castrates and does from weaning until one year of age. Logarithmic regressions of subcutaneous backfat measurements were constructed using body weight and age as inputs. The logarithmic regression of subcutaneous backfat deposition with bodyweight had a moderate to good fit, with Boer goat does displaying a better fit (R²=0.70) than castrates (R²=0.65). The logarithmic regression of subcutaneous backfat with age indicated a good fit for both sexes (R²=0.85). Castrates and does displayed similar rates of subcutaneous backfat deposition. The models proposed here will enable producers to estimate the subcutaneous backfat depth of Boer goat castrates and does with reasonable accuracy and can be utilized as benchmarks in precision Boer goat rearing applications, such as predicting an appropriate slaughter weight.

The objective of this controlled vaccine field trial was to determine the effectiveness of a commercial bacterin in increasing colostral immunity to reduce the risk of bacterial pneumonia in pre-weaned lambs in a commercial sheep operation. Pregnant ewes were randomly allocated to vaccination group (Ovipast™ Plus bacterin, n = 1807; unvaccinated, n = 1812). Ewe vaccination did not significantly (P > 0.05) improve lamb pneumonia treatment rates, crude or pneumonia specific mortality rates, or body weight gain. Interestingly, as birth weight increased in lambs from vaccinated ewes, they gained significantly more than lambs from unvaccinated ewes (P = 0.01). There was no difference in culture results from pneumonic lung samples for either Mannheimia haemolytica (P = 0.89) or Bibersteinia trehalosi (P = 1.00) between lambs from vaccinated and unvaccinated ewes. The results of this study suggest that there was no animal health and welfare benefit from vaccinating ewes with the Ovipast™ Plus bacterin prior to parturition to boost colostral immunity and improve health and growth in their lambs.

Growth factor receptor binding protein 10 (Grb10) regulates muscle growth but its function in goats is not well studied. This study examined the relationship between Grb10 gene polymorphism and growth traits in Guizhou white goats. Further, the effect of promoter polymorphism on Grb10 transcription was analyzed via a dual-luciferase assay. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that the expression level of the Grb10 gene was the highest in the longissimus dorsi muscle (P < 0.01) and the lowest in the spleen. Moreover, sequencing results showed that the Grb10 gene had five single nucleotide polymorphisms. The association analysis showed that g.–246 C > T, g.72323 T > C, and g.178634 A > G loci were significantly associated with growth traits (P < 0.05). Linkage disequilibrium analysis of each locus showed that g.72323 T > C and g.72814 T > A loci had the strongest linkage (r² = 0.482, D' = 0.73). Furthermore, according to an analysis conducted using TFDB4 software, it was predicted that a mutation in the promoter region of the g.–246 C > T locus resulted in the absence of four transcriptional regulatory factors. The results of dual-luciferase reporter assay further demonstrated that mutation of the g.–246 C > T locus reduced the transcriptional activity of the promoter region of the Grb10 gene. These findings suggest that Grb10 gene polymorphism could affect growth traits in goats.

We evaluated the potential of different strategies to increase intramuscular fat (IMF) deposition in sheep meat through meta-analytical methods. Additionally, this study aimed to investigate the interrelationship among diet composition, performance, carcass traits, meat quality, marbling score and IMF in sheep. The dataset was composed by 102 peer-reviewed publications. The strategies to increase IMF deposition in sheep meat were evaluated by examining the weighted mean difference (WMD) between control treatment and increased-IMF treatment (beta-agonist; glycerin; essential oil; vitamin E; lipids; tannins; feeding system and sex class). The interplay between factors such as dietary composition, performance, carcass and meat quality traits highlights how the intensification of production systems, characterized by a high grain content in the diet and shorter finishing periods, reduces IMF content of meat. The IMF content was greater in females (WMD = 0.52%; P<.0001) and castrated males (WMD = 0.53%; P = 0.001) compared to intact males. Lambs finished in feedlots exhibited a 19.23% higher IMF content (WMD = 0.74%; P <.0001) compared to those finished in pasture systems. The inclusion of lipids sources to the diets increased in IMF content (WMD = 0.11%; P = 0.008), while tannins sources decrease in IMF (WMD = −0.07%; P = 0.029). Marbling score did not prove to be an adequate indicator of IMF deposition in sheep meat, potentially due to biases in subjective marbling assessments. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the most effective strategy for enhancing IMF in lambs involves utilizing female or castrated males rather than intact males followed by finishing lambs on high concentrate diets in a feedlot. Genetics did not impact IMF in the evaluated studies while other dietary strategies to alter IMF deposition had mixed effects on IMF deposition. Tannin marginally decreased IMF, vitamin E had no effect, and lipid supplementation had varied effects on IMF deposition depending on the lipid source.

To study the effect of supplementing bioactive rich tree foliages in energy dense diet on lamb production and tissue fatty acid profile, 24 weaner male lambs (∼90days old) were divided equally into 2 groups and fed complete feed blocks without (C) and with 6% Hardwickia binata (anjan tree) leaves (T). Feed blocks in both the groups consisted of 3.25% rumen bypass fat. Dry matter intake and plane of nutrition were comparable among the groups but digestibility of neutral and acid detergent fibre were lower (P<0.05) in T than C. Rumen fermentation attributes revealed higher (P<0.05) concentration and proportion of propionic acid and total volatile fatty acids in T compared to C. The metagenomic equivalent values of total methanogens and protozoa were lower (P<0.05) while, population of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens was higher in T compared to C. Loss of metabolizable energy through methane was reduced by 4.6 percentage points in T than C which resulted in higher microbial nitrogen synthesis in T from methane mitigation. Subsequently, the average daily gain in lambs was improved by 5.9% in T compared to C. The fatty acid profile of Longissimus thoracis muscle revealed higher (P<0.05) C18:2c9t11 content in lambs of T group than C. Hence, from the present findings it can be concluded that inclusion of Hardwickia binata leaves at 6% level increased condensed and hydrolysable tannin content of the diet which modestly affected rumen fermentation resulting in reduced methane production and enhanced conjugated linoleic acid content in muscle tissue.