The study was designed to investigate the effect of mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) supplementation on intestinal histomorphology, immunity against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and productive parameters of broilers. A total of 1800, day old broiler chicks of Cobb-500 strain were selected and randomly assorted into 6 treatment groups: T1 (basal diet without antibiotics as negative control); T2 (basal diet plus antibiotics as positive control group); T3 (basal diet plus 200g/ton MOS); T4 (basal diet plus 400g/ton MOS); T5 (basal diet plus 600g/ton MOS) and T6 (basal diet plus 800g/ton MOS). Each treatment was having 6 replicates and the feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded on weekly basis. Results showed that, MOS supplemented birds have significantly higher feed intake, weight gain and FCR (P < 0.05). Similarly, supplementation of MOS showed positive effect on villus height and crypt depth both in jejunum and ilium. Goblet cell density was unaffected by MOS addition (P < 0.05). Furthermore, birds fed with diets containing MOS, exhibited better productive performance in comparison to positive and negative control groups. In conclusion, MOS can replace antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) as non-microbial performance-enhancing feed advocates.

Due to the human population explosion, demand for food, especially meat, has also increased. Increasing mutton production, in this scenario, is one way to mitigate this emerging issue as it nourishes a large human population. However, its production is challenging due to high feeding costs. This study was executed to develop cost-effective feed for mutton goat production by adding dried citrus pulp to the total mixed ration. Citrus pulp was used as an energy source instead of corn grain. A total of 12 bucks were divided into 4 groups, each having 3 animals. After 21 days of adaptation, bucks were assigned to experimental groups. The experimental groups were designated as A, B, C and D. They were fed TMR with 0, 10, 15 and 20% dried citrus pulp, respectively, as a replacement for corn grain for 90 days. The effect of the dried citrus pulp inclusion on the bucks’ growth performance such as feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio was evaluated on weekly basis. Hematological and biochemical parameters including total protein, triglycerides, cholesterol, complete blood count and serum antioxidant (catalase) activity were also determined. Results indicated that all hematological and biochemical parameters showed non-significant differences among the control and treatment groups. Weekly weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were equal in corn based as well as in dried citrus pulp-based diet with a lower feeding cost for the latter. It is concluded that the use of dried citrus pulp up to 20% as a replacement of corn in ration of fattening bucks is economical to use without any adverse effects.

Yaks are important food animals in China; however, bacterial diarrheal diseases frequently occur on the plateau, with limited effective therapies. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lactobacillus salivarius (LS) and berberine in alleviating diarrhea in yak calves. For this purpose, eighteen healthy yak calves were divided into control (JC), infected (JM), and treatment (JT) groups. Yaks in the JT group were treated with 2 × 10¹⁰ CFU/calf L. salivarius and 20 mg/kg berberine, and yaks in the JM and JT groups were induced with multi-drug-resistant Escherichia coli. The results showed that the weight growth rate in the JM group was significantly lower than that in the JC and JT groups. The diarrhea score in the JM group was significantly higher than that in both the JC and JT groups. Additionally, the contents of T-AOC, SOD, GSH-Px, and IL-10 were significantly lower in the JM group than those in the JC and JT groups, while MDA, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were significantly higher in the JM group. Microbiota sequencing identified two phyla and twenty-seven genera as significant among the yak groups. Notably, probiotic genera such as Faecalibaculum and Parvibacter were observed, alongside harmful genera, including Marvinbryantia and Lachnospiraceae UCG-001. Our findings indicate that treatment with L. salivarius and berberine significantly reduced diarrhea incidence, improved growth performance, and positively modulated intestinal microbiota, which could provide novel insights for developing new therapies for ruminant diarrhea.

The current trends in biomedical research gloabally rely upon experimental animals for their pivotal contribution in proper designs of experiments to understand the underlying mechanisms of various diseases.. These animals which are mostly rodents; are broadly preferred in biomedical research for certain characters like well established gene maps, easy adaptibility and ability to produce large number of offsprings at breeding. Besides, these animals are well known for high compliance to different diets beacuse of their characteristic digestive system structure, and high susceptibility to targeted non-infectious or genetic diseases which may cause harm to humans. Rodents are fed with different diets that meet their maintenance and productivity requirements specific to each specie and strain, highly depending upon the production or experimental purposes. Commercial diets in pellet or extruded form consisting of various feed raw materials of plant and / or animal origin, are the most widely used diets for feeding and special diets are also prepared according to the requirements of research. This review deals in comprehending the details about orgin, history, feeding behaviours and strains of variously used experimental animals. Besides, nutrient requirements of this animals; characteristics, type, content, physical form of diet and effects of environmental factors on their diet have been discussed.

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the efficacy of phytobiotic supplementation (PS), consisting on Allium sativum, Calendula officinalis, Echinacea purpurea, Emblica officinalis, Ocimum sanctum, powdered American ginseng, Withania somnifera active ingredients, on growth performance, acquired immunity, blood metabolites, carcass characteristics and nutrient digestibility of broiler birds. Two hundred and sixty, day-old broiler chicks (Ross-308) were divided into five treatments (T0; 0, T1; 0.75, T2; 1, T3; 1.25 and T4; 1.5 mL L-1 concentrations of PS in drinking water, respectively. Broiler growth performance was recorded weekly. Two birds from each replicate were slaughtered on day 21st and 35th to evaluate antibody titers, immune organ index (thymus, bursa and spleen). Samples for blood metabolites, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility and bone mineralization were collected on the 35th day. Collected data was analyzed using analysis of variance under a completely randomized design. PS had improved (P