The demand for animal protein has increased considerably worldwide, especially in China, where large numbers of livestock and poultry are produced. Antibiotics have been widely applied to promote growth and prevent diseases. However, the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed has caused serious environmental and health risks, especially the wide spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which seriously affects animal and human health, food safety, ecosystems, and the sustainable future development of animal protein production. Unfortunately, AMR has already become a worldwide challenge, so international cooperation is becoming more important for combatting it. China’s efforts and determination to restrict antibiotic usage through law enforcement and effective management are of significance. In this review, we address the pollution problems of antibiotics; in particular, the AMR in water, soil, and plants caused by livestock and poultry manure in China. The negative impact of widespread and intensive use of antibiotics in livestock production is discussed. To reduce and mitigate AMR problems, we emphasize in this review the development of antibiotic substitutes for the era of antibiotic prohibition.

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites or secondary metabolites produced by fungi and exist widely in all kinds of food and feed raw materials. They have led to many poisoning events and brought huge economic losses to livestock and poultry breeders every year. At present, the main challenges in the field of feed mycotoxin prevention and control are the high contamination rate, high coexistence rate, high detection cost and lagging research and development of prevention and control technology. Based on research data and results published by Chinese scholars in academic journals at home and abroad in recent years, this paper summarizes the status and causes of mycotoxin contamination in different feeds in China. At the same time, problems exist in the detection of mycotoxin contamination in Chinese feed. It is hoped to provide guidelines for the prevention and control of mycotoxin contamination.

This study presented two high-precision telomere-to-telomere genome assemblies for Min and Rongchang pigs, including a detailed exploration of the telomeric and centromeric regions. By integrating pan-genome and multi-omics analyses, structural variations linked to genetic adaptation were identified, providing a valuable resource for advancing pig breeding and genetic improvement.

The Min pig, a local pig breed in China, has a special trait which has intermittent villus and coat hair regeneration. However, the regulation and mechanism of villus in Min pigs have not yet been described. We observed and described the phenotype of Min pig dermal villi in detail and sequenced the mRNA transcriptome of Min pig hair follicles. A total of 1520 differentially expressed genes (DEG) were obtained.K-means hierarchical clustering showed that there was a significant expression pattern difference in winter compared with summer. Gene enrichment and network analysis results showed that the hair growth in Min pigs was closely related to the composition of desmosomes and regulated by an interaction network composed of eight core genes, namely DSP, DSC3, DSG4, PKP1, TGM1, KRT4, KRT15, and KRT84. Methylation analysis of promoters of target genes showed that the PKP1 gene was demethylated. Our study will help to supplement current knowledge of the growth mechanism of different types of hair.

MicroRNAs play essential roles in biological processes by regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Our previous studies suggested the role of miR-26a in porcine fat accumulation. Here, through gain- and loss-of-function analyses, we first showed that miR-26a increased the proliferation of porcine preadipocytes by promoting cell division and that miR-26a inhibited the preadipocyte differentiation. Next, acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, medium chain (ACADM) was revealed to promote the proliferation and differentiation of preadipocytes for the first time. Then, it was revealed that miR-26a regulates adipogenesis by directly binding to the 3′ untranslated region of ACADM and the long-chain acyl-Co A synthetase 1 (ACSL1) gene, a previously known regulator of adipogenesis. Finally, RNA-sequencing, performed on preadipocytes overexpressing miR-26a, identified 337 differentially expressed genes in the early stage of adipogenesis; among them, nine genes were characterized as potential targets of miR-26a. The 337 genes were mainly involved in Gene Ontology terms related to cell division, indicating that cell cycle progression was also a major event regulated by miR-26a during adipogenesis. We provide novel data for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying adipogenesis, which will contribute to controlling fat accumulation in animals.

In recent years, outbreaks of Seneca Valley virus (SVV) in pig farms have raised concerns about disease resistance in different pig breeds. Min pigs are an excellent local pig breed in China, but the breed’s strong disease resistance mechanism has not been clearly investigated. In this study, Min pigs and Landrace pigs were challenged with SVV, and the differences in pathogenicity between SVV-infected Min and Landrace pigs were evaluated in terms of production performance, survival rate, immune cell activity, pathological changes, viral titer, and cytokine expression. The results show that the mortality rate in Min pigs was significantly lower than that in Landrace pigs without substantial weight loss. The copy number of SVV RNA in the intestinal mucosa of Min pigs was lower than that in Landrace pigs. Additionally, the IgA and IgG titers in Min pigs were higher than those in Landrace pigs. Both the absolute number and percentage of M1 macrophages were elevated in Min pigs relative to Landrace pigs. This study is the first to identify differences in macrophage activity between SVV-infected Min pigs and Landrace pigs. The presented results indicate the potential research value of studying innate immunity differences in disease resistance between pig breeds.