Necrotic enteritis (NE), caused by Clostridium perfringens, has cost the poultry industry $2 billion in losses. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Bacillus licheniformis as dietary supplement on the growth, serum antioxidant status, and expression of lipid-metabolism genes of broiler chickens with C. perfringens-induced NE. A total of 240 one-day-old broilers were randomly grouped into four: a negative control, an NE experimental model (PC), chickens fed a diet supplemented with 30 % of fishmeal from day 14 onwards and challenged with coccidiosis vaccine (FC), and NE group supplied with feed containing 1.0 × 106 CFU/g B. licheniformis (BL). Body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, serum antioxidant status, and lipid-metabolism-gene expression were analyzed. In the PC group, FCR increased significantly whereas serum catalase and glutathione peroxidase activity decreased compared with NC group. Dietary B. licheniformis supplementation improved FCR and oxidative stress in experimental avian NE. Using Bacillus licheniformis as a direct-fed microbial (DFM) could also significantly upregulate catabolism-related genes, namely, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1, in livers and changed the expression of lipid-anabolism genes. These results suggested that dietary B. licheniformis supplementation can enhance growth and antioxidant ability, as well as change the expression of genes related to fatty-acid synthesis and oxidation in the livers of NE-infected broilers.

Lung tissue plays an important role in the respiratory system of mammals after birth. Early lung development includes six key stages, of which the saccular stage spans the pre- and neonatal periods and prepares the distal lung for alveolarization and gas-exchange. However, little is known about the changes in gene expression between fetal and neonatal lungs. In this study, we performed transcriptomic analysis of messenger RNA (mRNA) and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expressed in the lung tissue of fetal and neonatal piglets. A total of 19,310 lncRNAs and 14,579 mRNAs were identified and substantially expressed. Furthermore, 3248 mRNAs were significantly (FDR-adjusted p value ≤ 0.05, FDR: False Discovery Rate) differentially expressed and were mainly enriched in categories related to cell proliferation, immune response, hypoxia response, and mitochondrial activation. For example, CCNA2, an important gene involved in the cell cycle and DNA replication, was upregulated in neonatal lungs. We also identified 452 significantly (FDR-adjusted p value ≤ 0.05) differentially expressed lncRNAs, which might function in cell proliferation, mitochondrial activation, and immune response, similar to the differentially expressed mRNAs. These results suggest that differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs might co-regulate lung development in early postnatal pigs. Notably, the TU64359 lncRNA might promote distal lung development by up-regulating the heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like (HB-EGF) expression. Our research provides basic lung development datasets and will accelerate clinical researches of newborn lung diseases with pig models.