Aoyun Li

The gut microbiota is closely associated with the host's nutrient metabolism, digestion, absorption, and the maturation of the immune system (Ansaldo et al.,2019;Wang et al.,2024). Furthermore, research has highlighted its vigorous contributions to intestinal barrier integrity, bone development, epithelial cell differentiation, disease prevention and management (Yuan et al.,2024). As an essential biochemical convertor, the gut microbiota can utilize the food and nutrients ingested by the host to produce metabolites that benefit the host's health, including short-chain fatty acids, antimicrobial peptides, and vitamins (Liu et al.,2019;Marra et al.,2021). These metabolites are critical for maintaining host health and supportvarious physiological functions. However, the gut microbiota is sensitive to alterations induced by a range of external factors. For instance, age, gender, and species are important internal factors that influence the composition and structure of the gut microbiota (Lee et al.,2023). Additionally, external factors such as heavy metals, antibiotics, and pesticides can markedly disrupt the gut microbiota composition, leading to dysbiosis (Kaur et al.,2023;Li et al.,2024). Research has indicated that dysbiosis is closely associated with the development of various diseases, particularly intestinal disorders such as diarrhea, colitis, and colorectal cancer (Wang et al.,2023). Moreover, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in the intestine, releases metabolites from certain pathogens, such as lipopolysaccharides which can breach the intestinal barrier and jeopardize host health, contributing to the onset of various diseases (Shen et al.,2021). Therefore, maintaining the stability of the gut microbiota is essential for host health. Given the significant role of the gut microbiota in gastrointestinal diseases, an increasing number of studies are dedicated to exploring the potential relationships between the gut microbiota and the gastrointestinal tract. This unique electronic collection includes some articles covering all the above aspects.Rumen acidosis is one of the most prevalent gastrointestinal diseases affecting beef cattle, significantly threatening their health and growth performance, and posing a substantial risk to the beef cattle industry. Despite its importance, relatively few studies examine the potential relationship between rumen acidosis and gut microbiota. Wu et al. ( 2024) conducted a high-throughput sequencing study involving 8 healthy calves and 8 calves diagnosed with rumen acidosis, revealing that rumen acidosis can induce alterations in the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota in calves. Specifically, rumen acidosis was found to affect 70 bacterial genera, with 47 exhibiting increased abundance and 23 showing decreased abundance. Notably, the levels of certain beneficial bacteria, such as Prevotella, Succinivibrio, and Succinivibrionaceae, decreased significantly. These substantial changes in intestinal composition and abundance may serve as critical driving factors for the development of rumen acidosis.Yaks are an indigenous breed inhabiting the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, exhibiting strong adaptability to the high-altitude hypoxic environment. Additionally, yaks serve as a vital means of transportation for the residents of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and provide milk, meat products, and leather. However, yaks are susceptible to diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli, which can lead to significant economic losses and health issues. Diarrhea is one of the primary causes of reduced productivity and mortality in ruminants and is considered a major factor impeding the development of animal husbandry in various countries. Early surveys indicated that diarrhea affects nearly all ruminants, particularly in newborn goats, sheep, cattle, and yaks, whose gastrointestinal tracts are not yet fully developed, resulting in the death of approximately half of these animals. The gut microbiota of ruminants contains a diverse array of beneficial microorganisms, including lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, and lactococci. These probiotics have demonstrated a significant role in managing gastrointestinal diseases in the ruminants. Zhang et al. (2024) found that lactic acid bacteria can reduce the translocation rate of pathogens and enhance the intestinal barrier, thereby alleviating diseases caused by E. coli in yaks. Consequently, lactic acid bacteria may serve as a promising therapeutic option for treating E. coli infections in yaks.Factors such as transportation, vaccinations, and heat stress can negatively impact calves, resulting in decreased immunity and growth performance, as well as increased morbidity and mortality. The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in host disease resistance, immune system maturation, and metabolism. Furthermore, the gut microbiota is closely associated with host digestion and feed conversion rates. Therefore, enhancing and maintaining the gut microbiota of calves is essential for their health and growth. Yang et al. (2024) investigated the effects of supplementation with Shen Qi Bu Qi Powder (SQBQP) on serum biochemistry, antioxidants, gastrointestinal flora, and metabolism in calves. The results indicated that SQBQP supplementation enhanced the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, and digestive enzyme contents in calves. Additionally, SQBQP supplementation improved the gut microbiota and metabolism of calves. This study demonstrates that in light of ongoing demands to reduce antibiotic use, the development of Chinese veterinary compounds aimed at improving the gut microbiota structure of calves is vital for their health and growth.In recent years, the advancement of science and technology, coupled with the faster turnover of electronic products, has led to explosive growth in industrial production, significantly enhancing people's quality of life. However, a substantial portion of industrial heavy metal products remains...

As the most complicated and largest microecosystem, gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as a crucial contributor to intestinal homeostasis and host hea... As the most complicated and largest microecosystem, gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as a crucial contributor to intestinal homeostasis and host hea...

Domestic yaks (Bos grunniens) are indigenous to the Tibetan Plateau and display a high diarrhea rate due to poor habitat and husbandry conditions. Lactobacillus has been shown to exert beneficial effects as antimicrobial, growth promotion, and gut microbiota in humans and/or murine models, but the relevant data regarding Lactobacillus isolated from yaks was unavailable. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of Lactobacillus from yaks on the intestinal microbial community in a mouse model and determine whether Lactobacillus supplementation contributed in alleviating diarrhea by modulating gut microbiota. A total of 12 ileac samples from four groups were collected for 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of V3-V4 region. Results revealed that although Lactobacillus supplementation did not change the diversity of gut microbiota in mice, the proportion of some intestinal microbiota significantly changed. Specifically, the proportion of Lactobacillus and Sphingomonas in the Lactobacillus treated-group (L-group) were increased as compared to control group (C-group), whereas Pantoea, Cutibacterium, Glutamicibacter, Turicibacter, Globicatella, Microbacterium, Facklamia, unidentified_Corynebacteriaceae, Brachybacterium, and Staphylococcus were significantly decreased in the L-group. In contrast, Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection significantly decreased the proportion of beneficial bacteria such as Globicatella, Acinetobacter, Aerococcus, and Comamonas, while loads of pathogenic bacteria significantly increased including Roseburia and Megasphaera. Interestingly, Lactobacillus administration could ameliorate the microbial community structure of E. coli-induced diarrheal mice by reducing the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria such as Paenibacillus, Aerococcus, Comamonas, Acinetobacter, Corynebacterium, Facklamia, and Globicatella. Results in this study revealed that Lactobacillus supplementation not only improved the gut microbiota but also alleviated diarrhea in mice, which may be mediated by modulating the composition and function of gut microbiota. Moreover, this study is expected to provide a new theoretical basis for the establishment of a preventive and treatment system for diarrhea in yaks.

Background: The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem, which is essential for the metabolism, health and immunity of host. Many diseases have been shown to be closely related to the alteration of intestinal flora. Aeromonas veronii as a conditioned pathogen can cause disease in Yangtze finless porpoise through intestinal infections. However, it is not clear whether the disease caused by Aeromonas veronii is related to changes of intestinal flora. In the current study, the diversity and composition of gut microbiota in the healthy and Aeromonas veronii-infected Yangtze finless porpoise were evaluated by high-throughput sequencing to further investigate the potential association between intestinal flora alteration and pathogen invasion. Results: A total of 127,3276 high-quality sequences were achieved and 2465 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were in common among all samples. The results of alpha diversity showed that there was no obvious difference in richness and diversity between healthy and Aeromonas veronii-infected Yangtze finless porpoise. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the most dominant phyla in all samples. In addition, the healthy Yangtze finless porpoise exhibited higher abundance of Firmicutes and Fusobacteria than Aeromonas veronii-infected Yangtze finless porpoise, while, the level of Proteobacteria was decreased. At the genus level, Paeniclostridium and Paraclostridium were the predominant bacteria genera in the CK (healthy Yangtze finless porpoise) group. In the DIS (Aeromonas veronii-infected Yangtze finless porpoise) group, Lactobacillus and unidentified_Enterobacteriaceae were the dominant bacteria genera and the proportion of Paeniclostridium, Paraclostridium, Terrisporobacter, Cetobacterium, Candidatus Arthromitus, Terrabacter and Dechloromonas were reduced. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results showed that Aeromonas veronii infection can alter the gut microbiota of the Yangtze finless porpoise by affecting the number of harmful bacteria and beneficial bacteria.

Thiram is a widely known tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) inducer. TD, a common metabolic cartilage disease, presents in rapidly growing poultry birds. There are evidences that miRNAs are involved in diverse aspects of normal skeletal development, but very less is known about the role of miRNAs in TD. Therefore, this study aimed to determine which genes and pathways show differential expression between TD suffered chickens and normal chickens. We collected growth plates from ten-days-old TD chickens and control chickens and performed high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). Afterwards, target prediction, GO annotation and KEGG pathway analysis were carried out to understand the role of DEMs (differentially expressed microRNAs). We obtained 96,884,760 and 94,574,290 clean reads and identified 17 significant DEMs between the TD and control groups. Functional enrichment analysis of DEMs indicated that the putative targets of miRNAs were remarkably enriched in bone-related pathways, such as Notch, MAPK and Autophagy. Overall, this study provides detailed understanding about the pathogenesis of thiram induced TD and new insights towards the molecular mechanism of miRNAs.

Yaks living in the high-altitude hypoxic environment of Tibetan plateau (3600 m) have special gut microbes. However, it is still little research on yak probiotics until now. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to evaluate the growth promoting effect, antioxidant capability, immune effect, and anti-inflammatory ability of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus velezensis isolated from Tibetan yaks in mice model. The results showed that the isolated strains supplementation not only improve the growth performance but also increased the length of villus in the small intestine and intestinal digestive enzyme activity. Importantly, we observed that the T-AOC, SOD, and GSH-PX levels were increased and the MDA content was reduced in probiotic-treated mice, which implied that probiotics supplementation can ameliorate the antioxidative activity of mice. The levels of AST and ALT correlated with the hepatic injury were reduced and the levels of AKP, TP, GLB, ALB, Ca, and P were markedly higher than those in the control group. Additionally, mice treated with probiotics exhibited higher serum IgG, IgM and IgA, which can reflect the immune status to some extent. At the same time, the major pro-inflammatory factor TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 were down-regulated and the anti-inflammatory factor IL-10 was up-regulated compared with the control groups. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus velezensis supplementation can increase overall growth performance and ameliorate the blood parameters related to inflammation and immunity of mice.

Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a skeletal disease of fast growing chicken and other avian species. It is characterized by an avascular and non-mineralized growth plate, which leads to a deformed tibial bone and lameness. Unfortunately, this disease is not only responsible for causing huge economic losses but also raises animal welfare concerns. Icariin is a flavonoid, which is isolated from Epimedium pubescens herb, and it has been used to cure different diseases including bone fractures and osteoporosis. We designed this experiment to use icariin for the treatment of TD affect chickens; for this purpose, a total of 180 chicks were equally divided into three groups: control, TD and icariin. All the three groups were offered ad libitum same normal standard diet with an addition of thiram (50 mg/kg) from 3rd day to 7th day in TD and icariin group in order to induce TD in chickens. After the induction of TD, the chickens in icariin groups were fed standard diet with an addition of icariin at the rate of 10 mg/kg in drinking water to check the therapeutic effect of this flavonoid on TD. Our results showed that the icariin helped in restoring the TD lesion into a normal structure with significantly (P < 0.05) up-regulating the bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) expression in the tibial growth plates (GP). Icariin increased the vascular area in the growth plate and decreased the average TD score. In conclusion, this study shows that icariin is a potential compound for the recovery of TD affected chickens via up-regulating the BMP-2 expression without posing a threat of ingestion of toxic veterinary drug residues to human beings upon the consumption of treated chickens.