The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the combination of probiotics replacing antibiotics on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, intestinal morphology, and expression of tight junction proteins in intestinal mucosa of broilers. A total of 168 Arbor Acres broilers (45.04 ± 0.92 g) were randomly divided into three treatments, with seven replicates per treatment, and eight broilers per replicate. The experiment included phases 1 (d 0 to 21) and 2 (d 21 to 42). The dietary treatments contained a corn soybean meal-based diet (control group; CON); an antibiotic group (basal diet + 75 mg/kg chlortetracycline; CTC), and a probiotics group (basal diet + probiotics (500 mg/kg in phase 1 and 300 mg/kg in phase 2; Bacillus subtilis 5 × 10⁹ CFU/g, Bacillus licheniformis 2.5 × 10¹⁰ CFU/g and Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1 × 10⁹ CFU/g; PB). The results showed broilers fed PB had improved (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) in phase 1 and increased (p < 0.05) average daily gain (ADG) in phase 2, as well as improved (p < 0.05) ADG and FCR overall (d 0 to 42). The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter, organic matter, gross energy, and crude protein was increased (p < 0.05) in broilers fed PB, while the ATTD of dry matter and organic matter was enhanced in broilers fed CTC compared with CON. Broilers fed PB showed increased (p < 0.05) serum total antioxidant capacity concentrations and tended to have higher (p = 0.06) level of serum immunoglobulin M in phase 1 compared with CON. These broilers also had increased (p < 0.05) level of serum immunoglobulin A in phase 2 in comparison with CON and CTC. Moreover, broilers fed CTC and PB showed increased (p = 0.05) villus height to crypt depth ratio in duodenum, as well as higher (p < 0.05) mRNA expression of zonula occludens-1 in jejunum compared with CON. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with PB as chlortetracycline substitute could improve the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, serum antioxidant capacity, jejunal mucosal barrier function, and intestinal morphology of broilers.

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) stem waste (MW) on growth performance, antibody response, immune status, and serum cholesterol in broiler chickens. A total of 252 1 day old Arbor Acres (AA) male broiler chicks were randomly assigned into four treatments with seven replications of nine chicks each. The duration of experimental period was total 42 days. Dietary treatments includes a standard basal diet as negative control (NC) group; control diet with antibiotics (Chlortetracycline) considered as positive control (PC) group; 1% mushroom stem waste (MW) fed group; and 2% MW fed group. No significant differences (p > 0.05) was observed on average daily feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion ratio among experimental groups. Antibody titers against Newcastle disease (ND) and infectious bursal disease (IBD) were higher (p < 0.05) in 2% MW fed group than NC and PC fed groups. Serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) was higher (p < 0.05) in both levels of MW fed groups than in the NC and PC. Serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-6 (IL-6), were higher (p < 0.05) in 2% MW fed groups than in the NC and PC fed groups. Total cholesterol concentration was lower (p < 0.05) in both levels MW fed groups than in the NC. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) was lower (p < 0.05) in both levels of MW fed groups than that of NC and PC fed groups. MW at 2% level can be used as potential phytogenic feed supplement in broilers.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary LY or LY combined with ZnO supplementation on performance and gut health in nursery pigs. 192 Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire piglets (weaned on d 32 of the age with 9.2 ± 1.7 kg BW) were allocated into four treatments with eight replicate pens, six piglets per pen. The treatments included a basal diet as control (CTR), an antibiotic plus ZnO diet (CTC-ZnO, basal diet + 75 mg/kg of chlortetracycline + ZnO (2000 mg/kg from d 1 to 14, 160 mg/kg from d 15 to 28)), a LY diet (LY, basal diet + 2 g/kg LY), and a LY plus ZnO diet (LY-ZnO, basal diet + 1 g/kg LY + ZnO). The results showed that pigs fed LY or LY-ZnO had increased (p < 0.05) average daily gain, serum IgA, IgG, superoxide dismutase, fecal butyric acid, and total volatile fatty acid concentrations, as well as decreased (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio and diarrhea rate compared with CTR. In conclusion, pigs fed diets with LY or LY combined with ZnO had similar improvement to the use of antibiotics and ZnO in performance, antioxidant status, immunoglobulins, and gut health in nursery pigs.

The effect of different cross-fostering strategies on the growth performance, stress and immunity of piglets was investigated in this study. In the first experiment, a total of 20 litters (i.e., 20 sows) and 120 piglets were classified into one of six treatments in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement. The treatments consisted of piglets without or with cross-fostering and different birth weights (low birth weight, LBW; intermediate birth weight, IBW; high birth weight, HBW). The weaning weight (WW) and average daily gain (ADG) of LBW piglets and IBW piglets were not significantly different between the not cross-fostered (NC-F) group and the cross-fostered (C-F) group. There was a higher (p < 0.05) ADG in the control piglets compared with the cross-fostered piglets. This effect on ADG was only seen in the HBW piglets. In the second experiment, six sows with a similar body condition and farrowed on the same day were selected. Three female piglets with a birth weight of 0.6–0.85 kg were selected from each litter as experimental piglets. Eighteen piglets were grouped into three treatments: (1) not cross-fostered (NC-F1), (2) cross-fostered at 36–48 h after birth (C-F1), (3) cross-fostered at day 7 after birth (C-F2). The growth performance of NC-F1 and C-F1 piglets was higher than C-F2 piglets (p < 0.05), and the suckling positions of NC-F1 and C-F1 piglets on days 8, 12, 16 and 20 were more forward than the C-F2 piglets (p < 0.05). Plasma cortisol (COR) concentrations of NC-F1 and C-F1 piglets were lower than C-F2 piglets (p < 0.05). A significant negative correlation was observed between BW at day 21 and plasma COR concentration. In conclusion, cross-fostering within 24 h of birth has adverse influences on the ADG of HBW piglets, while it has no negative effect on the ADG of LBW and IBW piglets. Moreover, for IBW piglets, late cross-fostering (i.e., on day 7 after farrowing) has negative impacts on the growth performance and teat order of piglets, and it increases the cortisol level of piglets.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary tannic acid (TAN) on the gas production, growth performance, antioxidant capacity, rumen microflora, and fermentation function of beef cattle through in vitro and in vivo experiments. TAN was evaluated at 0.15% (dry matter basis, DM) in the in vitro experiment and 0.20% (DM basis) in the animal feeding experiment. The in vitro results revealed that compared with control (CON, basal diet without TAN), the addition of TAN significantly increased the cumulative gas production and asymptotic gas production per 0.20 g dry matter substrate (p < 0.01), with a tendency to reduce methane concentration after 96 h of fermentation (p = 0.10). Furthermore, TAN supplementation significantly suppressed the relative abundance of Methanosphaera and Methanobacteriaceae in the fermentation fluid (LDA > 2.50, p < 0.05). The in vivo experiment showed that compared with CON, the dietary TAN significantly improved average daily gain (+0.15 kg/d), dressing percent (+1.30%), net meat percentage (+1.60%), and serum glucose concentration (+23.35%) of beef cattle (p < 0.05), while it also significantly reduced hepatic malondialdehyde contents by 25.69% (p = 0.02). Moreover, the TAN group showed significantly higher alpha diversity (p < 0.05) and increased relative abundance of Ruminococcus and Saccharomonas (LDA > 2.50, p < 0.05), while the relative abundance of Prevotellaceae in rumen microbial community was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) as compared to that of the CON group. In conclusion, the dietary supplementation of TAN could improve the growth and slaughter performance and health status of beef cattle, and these favorable effects might be attributed to its ability to alleviate liver lipid peroxidation, enhance glucose metabolism, and promote a balanced rumen microbiota for optimal fermentation.

The thermal environment is crucial for livestock production. Accurately detecting thermal environmental conditions enables the implementation of appropriate methods to control the thermal environment in livestock buildings. This study reviewed a comprehensive survey of detection and control methods for thermal environments in livestock buildings. The results demonstrated that temperature, humidity, velocity, and radiation are major elements affecting the thermal comfort of animals. For single thermal environmental parameters, the commonly employed detection methods include field experiments, scale models in wind tunnels, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, and machine learning. Given that thermal comfort for livestock is influenced by multiple environmental parameters, the Effective Temperature (ET) index, which considers varying proportions of different environmental parameters on the thermal comfort of livestock, is a feasible detection method. Environmental control methods include inlet and outlet configuration, water-cooled floors, installation of a deflector and perforated air ducting (PAD) system, sprinkling, etc. Reasonable inlet configuration increased airflow uniformity by more than 10% and decreased ET by more than 9 °C. Proper outlet configuration improved airflow uniformity by 25%. Sprinkling decreased the temperature by 1.1 °C. This study aims to build a comprehensive dataset for the identification of detection and control methods in research of the thermal environment of livestock buildings.