Exotic pet medicine is rapidly evolving, with reptiles becoming increasingly popular pet animals. Yet, there are only a few literature reports on veterinary perception of reptiles kept as pets. The aim of the study was to assess opinions and knowledge of the Croatian veterinarians-to-be about pet reptiles and their welfare. The questionnaire survey was conducted in the academic year 2019–2020 and included students of all six years of the integrated undergraduate and graduate study at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb. First-year students were surveyed twice, before and after having attended the compulsory course on animal welfare. Questionnaire statements were 5-point Likert scale questions, requiring the students to express their opinions about turtles, lizards and snakes as pets, issues related to their welfare, risks they pose to the health and safety of humans, other animals and the environment, and their self-reported knowledge about pet reptiles. Although expressing higher opinions after having attended the course on animal welfare, first-year student responses remained neutral to most of the statements. Such a trend continued until the end of the study. Student responses revealed that they were uncertain about their knowledge of reptiles as pets, considering different educational areas observed. Study results emphasised the need of alterations in veterinary curriculum and additional student education in reptile medicine. The results obtained have broad implications involving not only the welfare of pet reptiles in clinical practice and elsewhere but also the health and safety of humans and other animals, as well as environmental protection.

With increasing concerns over antibiotic resistance in livestock, there is an urgent need for sustainable alternatives to enhance health and productivity in poultry production. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), a phytobiotic recognized for its diverse health benefits, including growth promotion and the improvement of intestinal function, was evaluated for its efficacy. This study investigated the effects of standardized ginger extract on gut morphology, microbiota composition, and growth performance in broiler chickens. A total of 200 day-old (Ross 308) broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four dietary groups: a control group receiving a basal diet and three experimental groups receiving a basal diet supplemented with 2.5 g/kg, 5 g/kg, and 10 g/kg of ginger extract. The performance results demonstrated that dietary ginger supplementation at 5 g/kg significantly improved feed efficiency without adversely affecting final body weight (p < 0.01). Feed intake in broilers was significantly reduced by higher doses of ginger extract (p < 0.01). Broiler chickens supplemented with 5 g/kg of ginger exhibited a significantly higher villous height-to-crypt depth ratio in the duodenum and jejunum (p < 0.05). Groups supplemented with 5 g/kg and 10 g/kg of ginger extract demonstrated a significant decrease in the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and an increase in the proportion of Firmicutes (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the addition of ginger extract at 5 g/kg resulted in improved feed efficiency, intestinal morphology, and microbiota composition.

In this study, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in honey bee larvae, pupae and the midguts of adult bees were investigated during a one-year exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) at a frequency of 900 MHz under field conditions. The experiment was carried out on honey bee colonies at three locations with electric field levels of 30 mV m⁻¹, 70 mV m⁻¹ and 1000 mV m⁻¹. Antioxidant enzymes, glutathione-S-transferase (GST), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) as indicators of lipid peroxidation were measured spectrophotometrically. The GST activity within the same developmental stage showed no significant differences regardless of electric field level or sampling time. The highest GST activity was found in the pupae, followed by activity in the larvae and midguts. Both CAT activity and TBARS concentration were the highest in the midguts, regardless of field level and sampling time. The larvae showed a significantly higher TBARS concentration at the location with an electric field level of 1000 mV m⁻¹ compared to the locations with lower levels. Our results show that RF-EMFs at a frequency of 900 MHz can cause oxidative stress in honey bees, with the larval stage being more sensitive than the pupal stage, but there was no linear relationship between electric field level and effect in any of the developmental stages.

Veterinary metabolomics has redefined bile acids (BAs) from simple digestive surfactants to systemic endocrine signals within a microbial–host metabolic axis. This review aims to evaluate how BA dysmetabolism acts as a central pathogenic factor in canine and feline disease. We analyze the BA pool’s integrity, which depends on a specialized functional guild, primarily Peptacetobacter hiranonis, responsible for 7α-dehydroxylation. We delineate two principal pathological profiles: (1) microbial collapse, characterized by secondary bile acid (SBA) depletion and compromised farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) signaling, which exacerbates inflammation in chronic enteropathy (CE), protein-losing enteropathy (PLE), and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI); and (2) hepato-biliary spillover, wherein host-induced dysfunction results in primary bile acid (PBA) excess. Recent data have linked these disruptions to skeletal health, feline renal fibrosis, cardiac remodeling in myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD), and neuroinflammation in epilepsy and hepatic encephalopathy. The discovery of microbially conjugated bile acids (MCBAs) and microbial extracellular vesicles (MEVs) reveals highly specific, vesicle-mediated communication pathways impacting systemic health. Diagnostic protocols should prioritize functional profiling, including the dysbiosis index (DI), serum conjugated BA analysis, and SBA/PBA ratios. Clinical management is moving beyond empirical fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), towards precision synthetic microbial consortia (SynComs), neuroprotective BAs like tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), and molecular postbiotics to restore the collaborative metabolome.