Litsea cubeba L. essential oil (LCEO) can affect the growth of drug-resistance bacteria. However, research on stress response of drug-resistant A. baumannii under sub-lethal LCEO concentrations had been limited so far. Therefore, transcriptomic analysis of A. baumannii under 1/2 minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, 0.54 mg/mL) of LCEO was performed. Results of transcriptomic analysis showed that 320/352 genes were significantly up/down-regulated, respectively, in LCEO-treated A. baumannii. Both up and down-regulated genes were significantly enriched in three GO terms (oxidation-reduction process; oxidoreductase activity; oxidoreductase activity, acting on the CH-CH group of donors), which indicated that the redox state of A. baumannii was significantly affected by LCEO. LCEO may also inhibit aerobic respiration, synthesis of ketone bodies and the metabolism of some amino acids while, meanwhile, promoting fatty acid degradation of A. baumannii according to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment. The permeability and the stress of cell membrane of A. baumannii were significantly affected by LCEO. After crystal violet dyeing, the biofilm formation of A. baumannii was promoted/inhibited by extremely low/relatively high concentration of LCEO, respectively. LCEO and chloramphenicol have synergistic growth inhibitory effect against A. baumannii according to the Fractional Inhibitory Concentration Index (FICI) value = 0.375. Our results indicate that the growth of A. baumannii was inhibited by LCEO, and give insights into the stress response of A. baumannii under sub-lethal concentrations of LCEO. These results provided evidence that A. baumannii was inhibited by LCEO, and expanded knowledges of stress response of A. baumannii under sub-lethal concentration of LCEO.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate several pathway intermediates and affect the skeletal muscle development in mice, pigs, sheep, and cattle. However, to date, only a small number of miRNAs have been reported in the muscle development of goats. In this report, the longissimus dorsi transcripts of one- and ten-month-old goats were analyzed by sequencing RNAs and miRNAs. The results showed that the ten-month-old Longlin goats had 327 up- and 419 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) compared with the one-month-old. In addition, 20 co-up-regulated and 55 co-down-regulated miRNAs involved in the muscle fiber hypertrophy of goats were identified in ten-month-old Longlin and Nubian goats compared with one-month-old. Five miRNA–mRNA pairs (chi-let-7b-3p-MIRLET7A, chi-miR193b-3p-MMP14, chi-miR-355-5p-DGAT2, novel_128-LOC102178119, novel_140-SOD3) involved in the goat skeletal muscle development were identified by miRNA–mRNA negative correlation network analysis. Our results provided new insight into the functional roles of goat muscle-associated miRNAs, allowing a deeper understanding of the transformation of miRNA roles during mammalian muscle development.

In recent years, the meat and dairy value of buffaloes has become a major concern in buffalo breeding, and the improvement of buffalo beef quality is key to protecting buffalo germplasm resources and solving the problem of beef supply. MiRNAs play a significant role in regulating muscle development. However, the precise mechanism by which they regulate the development of buffalo skeletal muscles remains largely unexplored. In this study, we examined miRNA expression profiles in buffalo myoblasts during the proliferation and differentiation stages. A total of 177 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified, out of which 88 were up-regulated and 89 down-regulated. We focused on a novel miRNA, named bbu-miR-493-5p, that was significantly differentially expressed during the proliferation and differentiation of buffalo myoblasts and highly expressed in muscle tissues. The RNA-FISH results showed that bbu-miR-493-5p was primarily located in the cytoplasm to encourage buffalo myoblasts’ proliferation and differentiation. In conclusion, our study lays the groundwork for future research into the regulatory role of miRNAs in the growth of buffalo muscle.

Fipronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide that has a good control effect on pests of commercial poultry. Although many studies have reported the environmental fate of fipronil, the influence of residual fipronil in poultry waste on biogas production has not been further explored yet. In this article, an experimental comparative study on anaerobic digestion (AD) of chicken manure (CM) and corn straw (CS) with different fipronil concentrations (FCs) was carried at 8% of total solid (TS) and mid-temperature (35 ± 1)°C. The results showed that fipronil had a significant effect on biogas production during AD of CM and CS. When the FC is at a low level (≤10 mg·kg⁻¹), the biogas production rate is increased and the digestion period was shortened, while higher FC (≥ 20 mg·kg⁻¹) showed an inhibitory effect. During the monitoring of enzyme activity, low FC showed no significant effect on cellulase and saccharase, but the urease activity increased in the early stage. High FC showed inhibition of activity of cellulase and urease, but the saccharase activity was significantly inhibited until FC reached 40 mg·kg⁻¹. This study also confirms that the environment in anaerobic digester is favorable for the degradation of fipronil, and its half-life is about 15.83 days.

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a zoonotic pathogen that causes severe diseases including meningitis, septic shock, and endocarditis in both pigs and humans. In swine, S. suis is one of the most important bacterial pathogens causing invasive diseases such as meningitis, septicemia, arthritis, and sudden death, with serotypes 1, 2, 7, and 9 being among the most frequently recovered from clinical cases in affected herds across Southeast Asia. We developed a multiplex TaqMan qPCR assay targeting four serotype-specific genes (cps1I, cps2I, cps7L, and cps9J) for detection of major S. suis serotypes in porcine samples. The assay achieved a detection limit of 10 copies/μL for all four target serogroups, amplification efficiencies of 89.64% to 100.42% (R² ≥ 0.997), and no cross-reactivity with any of the negative controls, including SS4, APP, HPS, Salmonella, E. coli, and S. aureus. Intra-assay and inter-assay repeatability were below 3%. Testing 98 clinical porcine samples from Guangxi, China, yielded positivity rates of 26.53% for the serotype 1/14 group, 19.39% for the serotype 2/1/2 group, 17.34% for serotype 7, and 29.59% for serotype 9, respectively, with mixed-target detection in 30.61% of samples. This assay enables rapid, reliable detection of major zoonotic S. suis serotypes in porcine samples, though it detects serotypes 1 and 14 as a group, and serotypes 2 and 1/2 as a group, due to capsular locus sequence similarity—a limitation acceptable for surveillance given the high pathogenicity within each group. This tool supports One Health-based veterinary surveillance for zoonotic disease control.