Abstract
Consumer push towards open and free-range production systems makes biosecurity on farms challenging, leading to increased disease and animal welfare issues. Phytogenic products are ...increasingly becoming a viable alternative for the use of antibiotics in livestock production. Here we present a study of the effects of commercial phytogenic supplement containing menthol, carvacrol and carvone on intestinal microbiota of layer hens, microbial functional capacity, and intestinal morphology. A total of 40,000 pullets were randomly assigned to two sides of the experimental shed. Growth performance, mortality, egg production and egg quality parameters were recorded throughout the trial period (18–30 weeks of age). Microbial community was investigated using 16S amplicon sequencing and functional difference using metagenomic sequencing. Phytogen supplemented birds had lower mortality and number of dirty eggs, and their microbial communities showed reduced richness. Although phytogen showed the ability to control the range of poultry pathogens, its action was not restricted to pathogenic taxa, and it involved functional remodelling the intestinal community towards increased cofactor production, heterolactic fermentation and salvage and recycling of metabolites. The phytogen did not alter the antimicrobial resistance profile or the number of antibiotic resistance genes. The study indicates that phytogenic supplementation can mimic the action of antibiotics in altering the gut microbiota and be used as their alternative in industry-scale layer production.
In the dynamic world of animal production, many challenges arise in disease control, animal welfare and the need to meet antibiotic-free demands. Emerging diseases have a significant impact on the ...poultry industry. Managing gut microbiota is an important determinant of poultry health and performance. Introducing precision glycans as feed additives adds another dimension to this complex environment. The glycans play pivotal roles in supporting gut health and immunological processes and are likely to limit antibiotic usage while enhancing intestinal well-being and overall poultry performance. This study explores precision glycan product as a feed additive supplemented at a continuous dose of 900 g per tonne of feed, in a free-range production system on a large commercial farm. Forty thousand 17-week-old pullets were randomly allocated to one of two separated sections of the production shed, with individual silos and egg-collecting belts. The flock performance, gut microbiota and its functionality were analysed throughout the laying cycle until 72 weeks of age. The results demonstrated that introducing precision glycans improved a range of performance indicators, including reduced cumulative mortality, especially during a major smothering event, where the birds pile up until they suffocate. There was also significantly increased hen-housed egg production, reduced gut dysbiosis score and undigested feed, increased number of goblet cells and improved feed conversion ratio. Additionally, microbiota analysis revealed significant changes in the composition of the gizzard, ileum content, ileum mucosa, and caecal and cloacal regions. Overall, the findings suggest that precision glycans have the potential to enhance poultry egg production in challenging farming environments.
Pasture dieback is a syndrome of unknown cause affecting grasses in Australia, creating significant economic losses to farmers by reducing available livestock feed and paddock carrying capacity. RC3 ...is a commercial plant growth stimulant tri-sodium salt of trimercapto-S-triazine (TMT) and potassium humate as active ingredients. TMT is commonly used for soil and wastewater remediation by capturing and binding heavy metals, while potassium humate is an organic compound used as a plant growth promoter. We investigated the ability of RC3 to restore soil health and productivity under pasture dieback conditions. RC3 was applied on pasture dieback affected paddock replicate plots once, at a rate of 4 mL/m2, and soil core samples were taken weekly to analyse microbial communities. Plants were collected regularly to measure dry matter and plant morphometrics. Twenty weeks after a single application, dry matter increased in RC3 plots by 900 kg/ha compared to control plots, and at week 48, eleven months after the single application, RC3 plots showed a trend of more grass and dicot species than the control. Morphometric measures suggest minor improvements in dicotyledon plants. Alpha diversity did not change with the application of RC3. Temporal correlation analysis shows that RC3 steadily reduced the presence of genera predominant in poor soils and with extreme environmental conditions over time and prevented the decline of beneficial genera, such as Marmoricola, Actinomadura, Dactylosporangium, and mle1-7.
Pasture production is vital in cattle farming as it provides animals with food and nutrients. Australia, as a significant global beef producer, has been experiencing pasture dieback, a syndrome of ...deteriorating grassland that results in the loss of grass and the expansion of weeds. Despite two decades of research and many remediation attempts, there has yet to be a breakthrough in understanding the causes or mechanisms involved. Suggested causes of this phenomenon include soil and plant microbial pathogens, insect infestation, extreme heat stress, radiation, and others. Plants produce a range of phytomolecules with antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, growth-promoting, and immunostimulant effects to protect themselves from a range of environmental stresses. These products are currently used more in human and veterinary health than in agronomy. In this study, we applied a phytogenic product containing citric acid, carvacrol, and cinnamaldehyde, to investigate its ability to alleviate pasture dieback. The phytogenic liquid-based solution was sprayed twice, one week apart, at 5.4 L per hectare. The soil microbial community was investigated longitudinally to determine long-term effects, and pasture productivity and plant morphometric improvements were explored. The phytogenic liquid significantly improved post-drought recovery of alpha diversity and altered temporal and spatial change in the community. The phytogenic liquid reduced biomarker genera associated with poor and polluted soils and significantly promoted plant and soil beneficial bacteria associated with plant rhizosphere and a range of soil benefits. Phytogenic liquid application produced plant morphology improvements and a consistent enhancement of pasture productivity extending beyond 18 months post-application. Our data show that phytogenic products used in the livestock market as an alternative to antibiotics may also have a beneficial role in agriculture, especially in the light of climate change-related soil maintenance and remediation.
Pasture dieback (PD) is a grassland deteriorating syndrome resulting in grass loss and weed expansion in Australian pastures, with current estimates indicating that over four million hectares are ...affected. PD creates financial losses to the industry by reducing animal carrying capacity and producing poor-quality feed, resulting in diminished productivity. After more than a decade since PD first appeared in Australia, the causes and effective treatments are still unknown. Suggested causes include soil microbiota dysbiosis, pathogens, insects, climate change and overuse of chemical fertilisers. Sea minerals have been suggested as capable of improving plants’ yield, quality, taste, and nutritional value, but were never brought into conventional practice as an alternative to chemical fertilisers. Here, we investigated the capacity of sea minerals to improve grass health and yield of PD-affected soil. The replicate plots were treated with water or with 4 mL/m2 of commercially available sea mineral product to investigate the soil chemistry profile, plant morphometrics, pasture productivity, soil microbiota profile, and microbiota-nutrient interactions. Sea mineral application significantly increased total dry matter 20 weeks after a single application, translating to an additional 967 kg/ha; this benefit was still present at 498 kg/ha eleven months post a single application. Sea mineral application improved soil microbiota by boosting beneficial taxa while reducing genera associated with arid and toxic soils. Additionally, sea mineral application increased the number of grassroots up to eleven months post a single application. Our data suggest the benefits of sea mineral application to damaged, unproductive or exhausted soils could be further explored as a natural, affordable, and non-toxic alternative to chemical fertilisers.
Pasture dieback is a rapidly expanding decaying pasture syndrome that affects millions of hectares of agricultural land in Queensland, Australia, making it useless for the cattle industry and ...decimating farmers’ income and welfare. Since the syndrome was first identified in the early 1990s, farmers and agronomists have tried various methods for pasture recovery, including slashing, burning, ploughing and resowing grass, fertilising, destocking, and overstocking. In most cases, after a minimal initial improvement, the grass reverts to dieback within a few weeks. Here, we present an application of potassium humate, a well-known plant growth stimulator, as a possible long-term recovery option. Humate was applied once at the rate of 12 ml per m2. Humate application did not alter the alpha or beta diversity of soil bacterial communities, nor did it change the mineral profile in the soil. However, humate application altered soil microbiota–mineral temporal interactions and introduced subtle changes in the microbial community that could assist pasture recovery. A single humate application increased paddock plant biomass significantly up to 20 weeks post-application. Eleven months after the single application, the paddock was grazed to the ground by the cattle just before the rainfall season. After pasture regrowth, the humate-treated plots significantly improved root morphometric indicators for both grass and dicots and increased the ratio of grass/weeds by 27.6% compared to the water-treated control. While this treatment will not resolve the dieback syndrome, our results invite more research to optimise the use of humate for maximum economic benefit in paddock use under pasture dieback syndrome conditions.
Pathogen control is a critical issue in the layer industry. Plant-based natural products are firmly replacing the undesirable use of antibiotics in animal production. The poultry industry embraced ...the opportunity to distance itself from the negative public perception of antibiotic use. In this study, we investigated the effects of a phytogenic product comprising of menthol, carvacrol and carvone on ileum gene expression profile in layers after 16 weeks of continual supplementation. Phytogen supplementation increased endocytosis and autophagy while showing significant predicted cardiovascular protective effects. Statistical comparison with over 100,000 manually curated and comparably reanalysed public datasets suggests that the phytogen effects are highly significantly comparable with transcriptomic effects of clinical antibiotics doxycycline and geldanamycin, and that phytogen can reverse transcriptomic effects of a range of viral diseases and malaria. Our data confirmed the hypothesis that similarly to the original essential oil type antimicrobial constituents of phytogenic products, there may be a range of benefits unrelated to their critical antimicrobial action, contributing to improved bird welfare.
Ileum; RNAseq; Phytogen; Menthol; Carvacrol; Carvone.
Survivors of childhood cancer are at risk for therapy-related subsequent malignant neoplasms (SMN), including thyroid SMN. Telomere length (TL) is associated with cancer risk, but the relationship ...between TL and SMN risk among survivors is less clear.
We conducted a nested, matched case-control study of radiation-exposed 15-year+ adult survivors of childhood cancer with thyroid SMN (cases) and without SMN (controls). Forty-six cases were matched to 46 controls by primary diagnosis, chemotherapy (yes/no), radiation field, and follow-up duration. Lymphocyte TL (LTL) was measured by telomere flow-FISH cytometry using blood samples banked at a mean of 38.9 years (cases), 39.2 years (controls). Genetic variation in telomere genes was assessed by whole genome sequencing. Point estimates for LTL <10th percentile were determined for cases and controls.
Cases had shorter median LTL than controls in three out of four leukocyte subsets. Cases were more likely to have NK cell LTL <10th percentile (
= 0.01), and 2.8-fold more likely to have naïve T-cell LTL <10th percentile than controls (CI, 1.07-8.78). Five out of 15 cases with a rare indel or missense variant had naïve T-cell LTL <10th percentile, compared with one out of eight controls.
Long-term survivors have shorter than expected LTL, a finding that is more pronounced among survivors with thyroid SMN.
The long-term impact of childhood cancer treatment on immune function is poorly understood. Our findings support immune function studies in larger survivor cohorts to assess long-term deficits in adaptive and innate immunity that may underlie SMN risk.
Abstract Background and aims Phytogenic bioactive plant products have shown promise in mitigating Australian pasture dieback (PDB) syndrome, a complex condition that adversely affects pasture ...productivity and sustainability. PDB is characterised by the progressive decline of grass, resulting in reduced soil organic matter. Recent studies have indicated that soil microbial communities play a crucial role in the remediation of affected pastures. In our previous research, the application of a phytogenic secondary metabolic product demonstrated a positive impact on soil microbial diversity, and it significantly increased pasture biomass. Building upon our previous study, we aimed to further investigate the mechanisms underlying pasture improvement through phytogenic treatment by spraying. Methods Here, we conducted a shotgun metagenomic investigation of the soil microbiome functional pathways affected by the phytogenic treatment. Results The application of phytogenic treatment to the PDB-affected soil resulted in a notable increase in soil microbial functional richness and diversity and showed alterations in beta diversity. Among the 65 significantly altered functional pathways, 54 showed an increase, while 11 decreased in response to the phytogenic treatment. The treatment altered the soil’s functional capacity towards increased production of biomolecules, including amino acids, lipids, and cofactors, thus enhancing the soil’s nutritional value. Furthermore, the phytogenic treatment significantly increased pathways involved in soil detoxification and carbon sequestration, suggesting its potential to promote soil health and carbon storage. Conclusion Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in improving the soils affected by pasture dieback. These insights will help develop sustainable strategies for pasture production.
Abstract
Introduction: Reduced blood telomere content has been associated with an increased risk for subsequent malignant neoplasms of the thyroid (thyroid SMN) in survivors of childhood cancer (PMID ...24277454). Here, we further investigate this association by examining telomere length (TL) in leukocyte subsets. Methods: Survivors were enrolled to the CCSS, a multicenter, retrospective cohort of 5-year + survivors of childhood cancer. Cases were survivors with thyroid SMN, and matched (1:1) to survivor controls without SMN by primary diagnosis, year of primary diagnosis (decade), chemotherapy (yes/no), radiation field, and follow-up time (exceeding time to SMN for the case). Stem cell transplant recipients were excluded. Absolute TL was determined from viably frozen leukocytes (lymphocytes, naïve T, memory T, B, and NK cells) by telomere flow cytometry fluorescence in situ hybridization (telomere flow FISH, Repeat Diagnostics), and transformed to age-adjusted percentiles based on age at sample collection. For each leukocyte subset, we used McNemar’s test to compare frequency of very low (VL, ≤1st age-adjusted percentile) or low (L, >1st to ≤10th percentile), and a paired t-test to compare age-adjusted TL between cases and controls. Odds ratios were determined by conditional logistic regression. Results: Of the 52 matched pairs identified, 46 pairs (92 survivors) had sufficient cell recovery for flow FISH: primary diagnoses included Hodgkin lymphoma (20 pairs), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (13 pairs), CNS tumors (7 pairs), neuroblastoma (2 pairs), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (3 pairs), and kidney tumor (1 pair). All survivors had age-adjusted TL below the population median. Cases had shorter age-adjusted TL than controls in 4 out of 5 leukocyte subsets: lymphocytes (p=0.04), naïve T cells (p=0.02), B cells (p=0.01), and NK cells (p=0.01). Naïve T cells had an overrepresentation of VL TL (cases with VL TL in 9/46 pairs vs. controls with VL TL in 2/46 pairs, p=0.04). The odds of L or VL naïve T cell TL was significantly higher in cases compared with controls (OR=2.8, 1.11-7.19, p=0.03), an observation that did not change after adjusting for age at diagnosis. Conclusions: Survivors of childhood cancer had shorter age-adjusted leukocyte TL than the general population. This negative deviation was more pronounced among survivors with thyroid SMN than in survivors without SMN, which may reflect a differential risk among survivors for excess premature aging in the hematopoietic compartment. The effect of SMN treatment on TL is unlikely to be a factor, as treatment for thyroid SMN is primarily surgical. In cancer-naïve populations, VL lymphocyte TL is a sensitive and specific indicator of underlying defects in telomere maintenance. In survivors of childhood cancer, VL TL in naïve T cells may reflect an association between SMN risk and defects in T cell-mediated cancer surveillance.
Citation Format: Maria M. Gramatges, Geraldine Aubert, Elmira Hariri, Yan Chen, John A. Whitton, Wendy M. Leisenring, Michael A. Arnold, Joseph P. Neglia, Yutaka Yasui, Leslie L. Robison, Gregory T. Armstrong, Smita Bhatia. Shorter naïve T cell telomere length is associated with thyroid subsequent malignant neoplasm: A report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3110.
