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Milk microbiota and mediated metabolites directly affect the health of the udder in dairy cows. Inulin, a dietary prebiotic, can modulate the profile of gastrointestinal microbiota. However, whether the inulin intake affects the milk microbial population and metabolites remains unknown. In this study, forty subclinical mastitis (SCM) cows were randomly divided into 5 groups. Five inulin addition doses, 0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 g/d per cow, based on the same basal diet were supplemented, respectively. The experiments lasted for 8 weeks. The results showed lower relative abundance of mastitic-causing and pro-inflammation microbes in milk (i.e., Escherichia -Shigella , Pseudomonas , Rhodococcus and Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia , etc.), and higher probiotics and commensal bacteria, such as, Lactobacillus , Bifidobacterium , etc. in the cows fed 300 g/d inulin, compared with the control group. Meanwhile, the levels of arachidonic acid pro-inflammatory mediators (leukotriene E3, 20-carboxy-leukotriene B4 and 12-Oxo-c-LTB3) and phospholipid metabolites were reduced, and the levels of compounds with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory potential (prostaglandin A1 and 8-iso-15-Keto-PGE 2 , etc.), and participating energy metabolism (citric acid and L-Carnitine, etc.) were elevated. These data suggested that inulin intake might modulate the microflora and metabolites level in extra-intestinal tissue, such as mammary gland, which provided an alternative for the regulation and mitigation for SCM. IMPORTANCE The profile of microbial community and metabolic activity in milk are main determinant of udder health status and milk quality. Recent studies have demonstrated that diet could directly modulate mammary gland microbiome. Inulin is a probiotic dietary fiber, which can improve the microbiota population in gastrointestinal tract. However, whether inulin intake can further regulate the profile of microbiota and metabolic activities in milk remains unclear. In subclinical mastitic cows, we found that inulin supplementation could reduce the abundance of Escherichia -Shigella , Pseudomonas , Rhodococcus , Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia and the levels of (±)12, 13 - DiHOME, leukotriene E3 and 20-Carboxy-Leukotriene B4 etc., while, elevated the abundance of Lactobacillus , Bifidobacterium , and Muribaculaceae as well as the levels of prostaglandin A1 (PGA1), 8-iso-15-keto-PGE2 and benzoic acid etc., in milk. These data suggest that inulin intake affects the profile of microorganisms and metabolites in milk, which provides an alternative for the regulation of mastitis.

This experiment aims to explore the effects of compound enzyme preparation substituting chlortetracycline on growth performance, serum immune markers, and antioxidant capacity and intestinal health in weaned piglets. A total of twenty-four 28-day-old “Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire” weaned piglets with an average initial weight of 7.25 ± 0.25 kg were randomly divided into three groups according to their body weight, with eight replicates in each group and one pig in each replicate. The three dietary treatments were basal diet (CON), basal diet + 1,000 mg/kg compound enzyme preparation (cellulase 4,000 IU/g, α-amylase 1,000 IU/g, β-glucanase 150 IU/g, and neutral protease 3,000 IU/g, CE), and basal diet + 75 mg/kg chlortetracycline (CTC). The animal experiment lasted for 28 days and was divided into two stages: the early stage (0–14 days) and the late stage (15–28 days). The results showed that (1) compared with the CON, the CE and CTC significantly increased the ADG of weaned piglets during the early and whole period of experiment (p < 0.05), decreased the F:G in the whole experiment period (p < 0.05), and diarrhea rate in the early stage (p < 0.01). (2) Compared with the CON, the apparent total tract digestibility of ADF and NDF was significantly increased in pigs fed the CE diet in the early and late stages of experiment (p < 0.05) with no significant difference compared with the CTC. (3) Compared with the CON, the concentrations of serum IgA and SOD in weaned piglets were significantly increased in the CE group in the early stage of the experiment (p < 0.05). (4) Compared with the CON group, the acetic acid, propionic acid, and total VFA contents in cecum and colon segments were elevated in the CE group (p < 0.05) with no significant difference compared with the CTC. (5) Compared with the CON group, the villus height of duodenum and jejunum and the ratio of villus height to recess depth of ileum were increased in the CE and CTC group (p < 0.05). (6) Compared with the CON group, the abundance of Lactobacillus significantly increased (p < 0.01) while the abundance of Escherichia coli decreased in the CE group and CTC group (p < 0.01). In conclusion, CE preparation instead of CTC can significantly improve the nutrient digestibility, the immunity, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal health of pigs, which may contribute to the improved growth performance of piglets.

Abstract:The performance of distributed computing systems is partially dependent on configuration parameters recorded in configuration files. Evolutionary strategies, with their ability to have a global view of the structural information, have been shown to effectively improve performance. However, most of these methods consume too much measurement time. This paper introduces an ordinal optimization based strategy combined with a back propagation neural network for autotuning of the configuration parameters. The strategy was first proposed in the automation community for complex manufacturing system optimization and is customized here for improving distributed system performance. The method is compared with the covariance matrix algorithm. Tests using a real distributed system with three-tier servers show that the strategy reduces the testing time by 40% on average at a reasonable performance cost.