The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Sophora alopecuroides (SA) on liver function, liver inflammatory factor levels, antioxidant indexes and transcriptome in sheep. Twenty-four 3-month-old healthy Dumont hybrid lambs weighing 25.73 ± 2.17 kg were randomly divided into three groups: C1 (the control group), fed a concentrate-to-forage ratio of 50:50; H2 (the high-concentration group), fed a concentrate-to-forage ratio of 70:30; and S3 (the SA group), fed a concentrate-to-forage ratio of 70:30 + 0.1% SA. The results showed that the rumen pH values of the C1 and S3 groups were significant or significantly higher than that of the H2 group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). The serum ALT, AST and LDH activities and the LPS and LBP concentrations in the sheep serum and liver in the H2 group were significantly or extremely significantly higher than those in the C1 and S3 groups (p < 0.01), and the IL-10 content and SOD, GPX-P_X and T-AOC activities showed the opposite trend (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in the ECM–receptor interaction and focal adhesion pathways, which are closely related to immune and antioxidant functions (p-adjust < 0.1). In summary, SA could improve the immune and antioxidant functions of lamb livers under high-concentrate conditions and regulate the mechanism of damage on sheep livers, which is caused by high-concentrate diets and through the expression of related genes in the ECM/FAs pathway.

Feeding HC diets has been found to induce metabolic dysregulation in the colon. However, the mechanisms by which changes in colonic flora and metabolites damage the colonic epithelium are poorly studied. Therefore, the present experiment used a multi-omics technique to investigate the mechanism of colonic injury induced by high-concentrate diets in lambs. Twelve male Dumont lambs were randomly split into two groups: a low-concentrate diet (LC = concentrate/forage = 30:70) group and a high-concentrate diet (HC = concentrate/forage = 70:30) group. The results showed that the HC group presented significantly increased lipopolysaccharide (LPS) concentrations in the colonic epithelium and significantly decreased serum total cholesterol (TC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels (p < 0.05), which led to cavities and inflammatory cell infiltration in the colonic epithelium. The HC group had significantly lower pH and less VFAs in colon contents, as well as a significantly increased abundance of bacteria of the genera [Eubacterium]_coprostanoligenes_group, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Treponema, Clostridia_UCG-014, Alistipes, Ruminococcus, Christensenellaceae_R-7_group, UCG-002, Bacteroidales_RF16_group and Lachnospiraceae_AC2044_group compared to the LC diet group. These microorganisms significantly increased the level of metabolites of cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, LysoPA (P-16:0/0:0), methapyrilene, and fusaric acid. A transcriptome analysis showed that cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, glutathione metabolism, and the peroxisome signaling pathway were downregulated in the colon epithelium of the lambs fed the HC diet. Therefore, the HC diet caused epithelial inflammation and oxidative damage by affecting the interaction between the microbial flora of the colon and metabolites and the host epithelium, which eventually disrupted colon homeostasis and had a negative impact on sheep health.

This study investigated the effects of replacing part of the soybean meal in the diet of Dumont lambs with urea, rapeseed meal, and cottonseed meal on their growth performance and rumen fermentation and combined rumen microbial metagenomics and metabolomics to explain the reasons for the changes in phenotypic data. Twenty-four healthy male Dumont lambs were divided into four groups: soybean meal group (T1, control group), group with 1.5% urea replacing 6.4% soybean meal (T2), group with 1% urea replacing 4.3% soybean meal (T3), and group with 1% urea + 6.6% cottonseed meal +5% rapeseed meal replacing all soybean meal (19%) (T4), following the principle of equal energy and nitrogen. Urea, rapeseed meal, and cottonseed meal have different degradation rates in the rumen, primarily stimulating arginine biosynthesis, sulphur metabolism, and carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms through Prevotella genus mediation, thereby influencing the accumulation of metabolites such as 9,10-DiHOME, DG (PGJ2/a-15:0/0:0), isonicotinate and taxifolin, affecting rumen fermentation. Compared with the T1 group, the T2 group showed significantly increased ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) and microbial protein (MCP) content (p < 0.01) and improved fructose and mannose metabolic capacity (p < 0.05). The T3 group showed a significant increase in total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) and MCP content (p < 0.01), which facilitated the absorption of subsequent nutrients. In the T4 group, different degradation rates of nitrogen resources and rapeseed meal + cottonseed meal contained abundant and complementary amino acids, which improved rumen fermentation, enhanced rumen microbial and metabolite diversity, and optimized the synergistic metabolic efficiency of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. However, the specific mechanisms of post-rumen metabolism and absorption require further investigation.

This exploratory study was designed to investigate associations between AM-containing high-concentrate diets and immune markers in Dumeng lambs and to generate hypotheses regarding concurrent changes in rumen fermentation, liquid-associated rumen microbial community structure, and metabolic profiles. Eighteen healthy male Dumeng lambs were randomly assigned to three groups with six lambs per group (n = 6). The CON group served as the control, while the T1 and T2 groups were supplemented with 1% and 2% AM, respectively. The results showed that compared with CON, lambs fed AM-containing diets had higher ruminal NH₃-N (10.88 vs. 12.01 and 12.10 mg/100 mL, p < 0.01) and TVFA (73.78 vs. 85.39 and 87.22 mmol/L, p < 0.05) concentrations, lower acetate proportion (52.16% vs. 47.64% and 46.55%) and acetate-to-propionate ratio (p < 0.01), and higher butyrate proportion in the 1% and 2% AM groups (5.58% vs. 8.55 and 9.31%, p < 0.01). Endpoint-level immune effects survived BH-FDR correction (q < 0.05); Tukey-adjusted pairwise comparisons showed that T2 lambs had lower IL-6 (58.97 vs. 91.35 pg/mL), TNF-α (137.80 vs. 182.38 pg/mL), rumen LPS (109.33 vs. 141.25 ng/mL), and serum LPS (59.67 vs. 81.07 ng/mL), and higher IL-10 (123.14 vs. 87.88 pg/mL), TP (73.50 vs. 67.72 g/L), ALB (28.69 vs. 24.47 g/L), IgA (15.42 vs. 8.52 μg/mL), and IgG (18.38 vs. 11.73 μg/mL) than CON. Exploratory 16S rRNA analysis showed nominally lower Proteobacteria and higher Shuttleworthia in T2; however, no taxon survived BH-FDR correction (q ≥ 0.05), and ANCOM W and LEfSe LDA results are exploratory sensitivity findings only. Exploratory metabolomics suggested associations with purine and nucleotide metabolism; KEGG analysis used uncorrected p values and is hypothesis-generating only. These correlational findings indicate that AM-containing high-concentrate diets are associated with changes in several immune markers; because diets also differed in ingredients other than AM, causality, clinical benefits, and the independent effect of AM remain to be established.

The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of a mixed mycotoxins detoxification agent (probiotics, Glucose oxidase (GOD) and its combination) to alleviate the toxicity of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) by assessing growth performance, serum toxin residue, immune function, antioxidant status and serum biochemical indices of sheep. Twenty 8-month-old Mongolian sheep were randomly assigned to 1-5 diet treatment groups: 1) the control (CON) group: basal diet; 2) the AFB1 (A) group: CON + 0.2 mg/kg AFB1; 3) the AFB1 and probiotics (AP) group: A + 0.5% probiotics; 4) the AFB1 and GOD (AG) group: A + 0.5% GOD; 5) the AFB1, probiotics, and GOD (APG) group: A + 0.5% probiotics + 0.5% GOD. Results showed that treatment A adversely affected the health and performance of sheep. However, the treatments AP, AG, or APG exerted a positive effect on health, performance and other indications. In conclusion, probiotics, GOD, and its combination induced injury of Mongolian sheep by alleviating the negative effects of AFB1 on the production performance, immune indexes, antioxidant indexes, and serum biochemical indexes and effectively reducing serum toxin residue. Key Contribution The study investigated the effects of probiotics, Glucose oxidase and its combination on serum detoxification of AFB1 by assessing growth performance, serum toxin residue, immune function, antioxidant status and blood biochemical indices of sheep. AFB1 - contaminated diets supplemented with probiotics and GOD were effective in improving growth performance, immunity, antioxidant function, liver function, and decreasing serum AFB1 residue of sheep.