The present study aimed to investigate the effect of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) supplementation on growth performance, Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) carriage and antimicrobial peptides in the epithelial tissue of caecum and skin in rabbits. Five treatments included control and C. jejuni challenge with the addition of TMP at 0, 50, 100 or 150 mg/kg of diet. The trial lasted for 35 days and C. jejuni challenge occurred on first day of feeding trial. The results showed that C. jejuni challenge worsened (P < 0.05) feed intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency, whereas TMP supplementation partially compensated (P < 0.05) growth performance. C. jejuni populations in the caecal content and on the skin were decreased (P < 0.05) in the treatments containing TMP. The mRNA levels of antimicrobial peptides, including defensin neutrophil peptide 4, macrophage cationic peptide 2, galectin 3 and cathelicidin were also decreased (P < 0.05) by C. jejuni challenge while they were increased (P < 0.05) with supplemental TMP. Linear and quadratic trends (P ≤ 0.012) of the three doses of TMP were found in growth performance, linear trends (P ≤ 0.049) in C. jejuni carriage, and linear and quadratic trends (P ≤ 0.012) in galectin 3. The results suggest that TMP can partially protect from C. jejuni infection by decreasing C. jejuni carriage and activating epithelial antimicrobial peptides.

This study investigated the effect of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on growth performance, glutathione turnover, aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) residue and AFB₁-DNA adduct in growing lambs. Diets were a 2 × 2 factorial design, including AFB₁ at 0 or 100 µg/kg and LAB at 0 or 3 × 109 cfu/kg. Results showed that AFB₁ decreased (P < 0.05) feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), and activities of glutathione (GSH), glutathione s-transferases (GSTs) and glutathione reductase (GR) in liver and duodenal mucosa, whereas these parameters were increased (P < 0.05) by supplemental LAB. AFB₁ increased and LAB decreased the feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05). Interactions (P < 0.05) were found on BWG, liver GSTs and mucosal GSH. LAB decreased (P ≤ 0.001) AFB₁ residue in liver, kidney, plasma and faeces and AFB₁-DNA adduct in kidney, plasma and faeces. It can be concluded that LAB can partially protect against AFB₁toxicity by facilitating glutathione turnover and reducing AFB₁ toxicity in lambs.

The problem of Complex Modified Projective Synchronization (CMPS) for fractional-order complex-valued dynamic networks (FOCDNs) is investigated in this paper. Compared with real-valued dynamic networks, complex-valued dynamic networks have expansive application space. First, coupling weight has been generally considered as static constant in most situations, we consider time-varying coupling weight and the unknown parameters in the FOCDNs. Meanwhile, several parameter update laws are designed to estimate unknown parameters and an adaptive coupling weight is defined to adjust coupling nodes in order to solve CMPS problem of the network. Second, some effective criteria for CMPS of FOCDNs are derived by fractional calculus and Lyapunov stability theory. According to the theoretical analysis, FOCDNs with time-varying delay can achieve CMPS via adaptive controller. Finally, the effectiveness of the modified projective strategy for fractional-order complex networks is illustrated via two numerical examples in the complex-valued space.

Probiotics or clay detoxifier can improve the intestinal health of monogastric animals fed diets contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), but little is known in ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the effect of probiotics and clay detoxifier on the growth performance, enterotoxigenic bacteria, endotoxins and intestinal barrier of lambs fed diet contaminated with AFB1. Lambs (24) were randomly allocated into 4 groups with 6 replicates. Treatments included control, AFB1 (100 μg/kg), probiotics (AFB1 + probiotics @ 3×109 cfu/kg) and clay (AFB1 + clay @ 4.0 g/kg of feed). The trial lasted for 35 d. Results showed that AFB1 worsened body weight gain and feed conversion ratio, and these were recovered by probiotics and clay detoxifier supplementation. Also, AFB1 increased cecal counts of Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella, Escherichia coli and gram-negative bacteria, serum endotoxin and diamine oxidase, but decreased duodenal mRNA expressions of claudin-1, IgA inducing protein, junctional adhesion molecule 2 (JAM-2), joining chain of multimeric IgA and IgM (J-chain) and occludin. Probiotics ameliorated these negative effects, but for Clostridium perfringens and J-chain, whereas clay detoxifier only showed beneficial effects on Escherichia coli, gram-negative bacteria, endotoxins, claudin-1 and JAM-2. In addition, probiotics were more protective against enterotoxigenic bacteria and enterotoxic markers than clay detoxifier. The results suggest that the probiotics are capable of restoring growth performance and protecting intestinal barrier in lambs fed diet contaminated with AFB1.