No abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Astragalus by-product (ABP) through dietary supplementation at different levels on performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, blood metabolites, and immune response in sheep. Twenty-four Doper × Small Tail Han ewes (6-7 months of age; 29.07 ± 2.28 kg initial body weight) were randomly assigned to one of three treatments for a 47 d feeding period. Treatments consisted of the sheep diet supplemented with 0% ABP-control, 10% ABP, or 15% ABP of the diet (dry matter basis). Blood samples were collected on days 0, 15, 30, and 45 of the feeding period. APB supplementation did not affect growth performance and apparent digestibility of organic matter, crude protein, and acid detergent fibre (P>0.05). However, ether extract digestibility was decreased in the 10% ABP group and increased in the 15% ABP group (P<0.001), and both 10% ABP and 15% ABP decreased the neutral detergent fibre digestibility (P=0.005). Feeding ABP increased rumen pH (P<0.001) and ammonia N (P<0.001) and decreased concentrations of acetate (P=0.007) and propionate (P=0.001) which resultantly increased the acetate-to-propionate ratio (P<0.001) in ruminal fluid. There were no interaction effects between treatment and sampling time for plasma metabolites and immunity (P>0.05). However, inclusion of dietary 10% ABP decreased concentrations of plasma cholesterol (P=0.043). Also, plasma concentrations of low-density lipoprotein decreased on days 30 and 45 (P=0.017) of the feeding period. Metabolite concentrations of total protein, albumin, globulin, blood urea N, glucose, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and humoral immune indicators were not affected (P>0.05) by dietary ABP supplementation. The results suggest that ABP could be reclaimed through dietary inclusion in animal feed since it had beneficial effects on rumen fermentation patterns and lipid metabolism and had no adverse effects on performance and humoral immunity in sheep.

Purpose. The biological characteristics of Fusarium solani clinical corneal isolates growing in different nutritional conditions in vitro were studied in order to find out the key point of pathogenicity. Methods. Five kinds of media with different glucose and nitrogen concentrations were prepared as the liquid and solid forms. The clinical isolates were as follows: 2 Fusarium solani strains. The clinical corneal isolates and the standard strains were inoculated in the solid and liquid media. They were all incubated at 296 for 96 h and observed at defined time points. The optical density was recorded to generate the growth curves in liquid media. Morphologic changes of colonies in the solid media were determined under the light microscope. Results. The clinical isolates of Fusarium solani showed stronger reproductive capacity in the abominable nutritional condition. Besides, when the glucose concentration in the medium was consistent with the glucose concentration of aqueous in diabetic patients, the clinical isolates would show the biological features of quicker growth rate and stronger reproductive capacity. Conclusions. Nitrogen source is essential for fungus reproduction. The clinical isolates showed stronger environmental adaptability under different nutritional conditions and more sensitive to environmental changes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Tongmai granule residue (TGR) on the growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility, blood biochemical parameters, and rumen fermentation in Doper x Small Tail Han hybrid sheep. Twenty-four healthy female lambs (6–7 months of age; 29.64 ± 1.80 kg initial body weight) were randomly divided into 3 groups and fed for 75 days. The control group was fed a commercial concentrate and the other groups were fed diets supplemented with 10% and 15% TGR respectively. Dietary 15% TGR supplementation decreased average daily gain, apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber, but increased the feed conversion ratio, apparent digestibility of crude fat and organic matter in lambs (P < 0.05). The 10% TGR group significantly increased the apparent digestibility of organic matter (P < 0.05). Dietary supplementation of 10% and 15% TGR significantly increased serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) content on day 15, IgG content on day 30, and IgA content on day 60 of the feeding period (P < 0.05). Dietary supplementation of 15% TGR significantly increased the content of IgA on the 30th day (P < 0.05), and significantly decreased blood urea nitrogen (BUN) on the 30th day (P < 0.05) of the feeding period. TGR at 15% significantly decreased the contents of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) in the rumen (P < 0.05), and significantly increased the pH, NH3-N concentration, and acetic acid: propionic acid ratio (P < 0.05). The results suggest that, the addition of TGR to diet can improve the apparent digestibility of crude fat and organic matter, and improve the anti-atherosclerosis ability and immune function of Doper x Small Tail Han hybrid female lambs. The dietary addition of 10% TGR yielded the best feeding effect in this experiment.