Determining the taxonomic composition of microbial consortia of the piglet intestine is of great importance for pig production. However, knowledge on the variety of the intestinal microbiome in newborn piglets is limited. Piglet diarrhea is a serious gastrointestinal disease with a high morbidity and mortality that causes great economic damage to the pig industry. In this study, we investigated the microbiome of various sections of the piglet intestine and compared the microbiome composition of healthy and diarrheal piglets using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The results showed that bacteria of the Lactobacillus genus were the most common in the ileum, while Fusobacterium and Bacteroides dominated in the rectum. Comparing the microbiome composition of healthy and diarrheal piglets revealed a reduced number of Lactobacillus bacteria as a hallmark of diarrhea, as did an increased content of representatives of the Escherichia-Shigella genus and a reduced number of Bacteroides, which indicates the contribution of these bacteria to the development of diarrhea in piglets. The relative abundance of Enterococcus bacteria was higher in the diarrhea group. Although some bacteria of this genus are commensals, a small number of species may be associated with the development of diarrhea in piglets. Therefore, our results indicate that the gut microbiome may be an important factor in the development of diarrhea in piglets.

Background and Aim: Mastitis is recognized as the most common disease in cattle and causes economic losses in the dairy industry. A number of opportunistic bacterial taxa have been identified as causative agents for this disease. Conventionally, antibiotics are used to treat mastitis; however, most bacteria are resistant to the majority of antibiotics. This study aimed to use molecular methods to identify milk microbiome patterns characteristic of mastitis that can help in the early diagnosis of this disease and in the development of new treatment strategies. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the microbiome composition, we performed NGS sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of the V3 region. Results: An increase in the abundance of the bacterial genera Hymenobacter and Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group is associated with the development of subclinical and clinical mastitis in dairy cows. These bacteria can be added to the list of markers used to detect mastitis in cows. Furthermore, a decrease in the abundance of Ralstonia, Lachnospiraceae NK3A20 group, Acetitomaculum, Massilia, and Atopostipes in cows with mastitis may indicate their role in maintaining a healthy milk microbiome. Antibiotics reduced the levels of Streptococcus in milk compared to those in the healthy group and cows before antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic therapy also contributed to an increase in the abundance of beneficial bacteria of the genus Asticcacaulis. Conclusion: This study expands our understanding of the association between milk microbiota and mastitis. Keywords: cattle, dairy industry, early diagnosis, microbiome.

Micromycetes are known to secrete numerous enzymes of biotechnological and medical potential. Fibrinolytic protease-activator of protein C (PAPC) of blood plasma from micromycete Aspergillus ochraceus VKM-F4104D was obtained in recombinant form utilising the bacterial expression system. This enzyme, which belongs to the proteinase-K-like proteases, is similar to the proteases encoded in the genomes of Aspergillus fumigatus ATCC MYA-4609, A. oryzae ATCC 42149 and A. flavus 28. Mature PAPC-4104 is 282 amino acids long, preceded by the 101-amino acid propeptide necessary for proper folding and maturation. The recombinant protease was identical to the native enzyme from micromycete in terms of its biological properties, including an ability to hydrolyse substrates of activated protein C (pGlu-Pro-Arg-pNA) and factor Xa (Z-D-Arg-Gly-Arg-pNA) in conjugant reactions with human blood plasma. Therefore, recombinant PAPC-4104 can potentially be used in medicine, veterinary science, diagnostics, and other applications.

In this study, we investigated the properties of proteolytic enzymes of two species of Aspergillus, Aspergillus flavus 1 (with a high degree of pathogenicity) and Aspergillus ochraceus L-1 (a conditional pathogen), and their effects on various components of the hemostasis system (in vitro) in the case of their penetration into the bloodstream. We showed that micromycete proteases were highly active in cleaving both globular (albuminolysis) and fibrillar (fibrin) proteins, and, to varying degrees, they could coagulate the plasma of humans and animals (due to proteolysis of factors of the blood coagulation cascade) but were not able to coagulate fibrinogen. The proteases of both Aspergillus fully hydrolyzed thrombi in 120–180 min. Micromycetes did not show hemolytic activity but were able to break down hemoglobin.

The study is devoted to the analysis of the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in cultures of E. coli isolated from the gut of the piglets with diarrhea. With the use of high-throughput sequencing, it was possible to identify 26 antibiotic resistance genes. They belonged to 7 groups of antibiotics: aminoglycosides, beta-lactam antibiotics, quinolones, sulfonamides, tetracyclines, diaminopyrimidine, phenicols. The relative abundance of the QnrD gene was maximal in the studied sample of E. coli isolates (50%). For other sequences of antibiotic resistance genes, the percentage ratio of each separate group of genes did not exceed 10%. The largest number of gene variants was characteristic of the class of genes resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics (AmpC1_Ecoli, OXA-10, OXA-14, OXA-16, Penicillin_Binding_Protein_Ecoli, TEM-143, TEM-166, TEM-215 and TEM-76, TEM- 95).