Efforts to develop stroke treatments have met with limited success despite an intense need to produce novel treatments. The failed translation of many of these therapies in clinical trials has lead to a close examination of the therapeutic development process. One of the major factors believed to be limiting effective screening of these treatments is the absence of an animal model more predictive of human responses to treatments. The pig may potentially fill this gap with a gyrencephalic brain that is larger in size with a more similar gray-white matter composition to humans than traditional stroke animal models. In this study we develop and characterize a novel pig middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) ischemic stroke model.

One-day-old chicks were assigned one of four dietary treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design in which the main effects were diet (adequate vs. low protein) and the addition of protease (0 vs. 200 g/1000 kg of feed). Chick performance (days 0–14) was recorded and their excreta were analyzed for short chain fatty acids, ammonia, and composition of the microbiota using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Birds fed the low protein diet had lower body weight gain and poorer overall feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p ≤ 0.04); however, these parameters were not affected by the inclusion of protease (p ≥ 0.27). Protease inclusion did not affect any particular bacterial genus in the excreta, but it increased the total number of observed OTUs (p = 0.04) and Faith’s phylogenetic diversity (p = 0.05). Abundance of Proteus and Acinetobacter were lower in the excreta of chicks fed the low protein diet (p = 0.01). Abundance of Bacteroides was associated with poorer FCR, while Proteus was associated with improved FCR (p ≤ 0.009). Although diet had a stronger impact than protease on chick performance, both diet and protease yielded some changes in the intestinal microbiotas of the birds.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dietary manganese on the reproductive performance of sows. Sows (n = 39; 231 ± 8 kg) were randomly assigned to one of three dietary levels of supplemented Mn (CON: 0 ppm Mn; PRO20: 20 ppm Mn; PRO40: 40 ppm Mn). The experimental treatments were initiated at breeding and continued through two parities. The sows were blocked by parity within each farrowing group. The data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design using the MIXED procedure of SAS with diet as a fixed effect and block as a random effect. The lactation feed intake increased in the PRO20 sows compared to the CON and PRO40 sows (p < 0.05). The PRO20 and PRO40 sows farrowed piglets with improved average daily gain from birth to weaning (CON 214 g/day; PRO20 237 g/day; 220 g/day; p < 0.05) compared to the CON sows. The milk fat content was lower in the PRO20 (5.5%) and PRO40 sows (6.1%; p < 0.05) compared to the CON sows (7.8%), possibly due to increased milk demand. Supplementary dietary Mn throughout two gestation and lactation cycles led to improved birth weights and pre-weaning growth of piglets.

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of varying dietary manganese and selenium concentrations, antioxidant cofactors, on the growth performance and fecal microbial populations of nursery pigs. The piglets (N = 120) were blocked by weight (5.22 ± 0.7 kg) and sex. The pens (n = 5/treatment) within a block were randomly assigned to diets in a 2 × 3 factorial design to examine the effects of Se (0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg added Se) and Mn (0, 12, and 24 mg/kg added Mn) and were fed in three phases (P1 = d 1–7, P2 = d 8–21, P3 = d 22–35). The pigs and orts were weighed weekly. Fecal samples were collected d 0 and 35 for 16S rRNA bacterial gene sequencing and VFA analysis. The data were analyzed as factorial via GLM in SAS. There was a linear response (p < 0.05) in overall ADG across dietary Mn. Supplementing 24 mg/kg Mn tended to decrease (p < 0.10) the relative abundance of many bacteria possessing pathogenic traits relative to Mn controls. Meanwhile, increasing Mn concentration tended to foster the growth of bacteria correlated with gut health and improved growth (p < 0.10). The data from this study provide preliminary evidence on the positive effects of manganese on growth and gut health of nursery pigs.