Selenium (Se) is an essential element in human and animal diets, based upon a widespread range of beneficial effects that are primarily due to its antioxidant properties. While Se can be associated ...to anti-cancer and anti-diabetic activities, reproductive efficiency, and enhancement of the immune system, the mechanistic details of the corresponding biological processes are still largely elusive. To avoid deficiencies and increase bioavailability, Se it is generally supplied to livestock through Se-supplemented feeds or forage plants fertilized with inorganic Se. While the relationship between Ca2+ and ROS (reactive oxygen species) is well known, only a few studies have addressed the possible involvement of Se in the control of cytosolic Ca2+ in oxidative stress. The results on Ca2+ homeostasis were obtained adding exogenous Se in the form of SeO42- to sheep lymphomonocytes cultured in vitro. In particular, Se strongly attenuated 1mM H2O2-induced alteration of intracellular Ca2+C as well as the entry of extracellular Ca2+ into the cells with comparable EC50 values for sodium selenate accounting to 1.72 and 2.28 mM, respectively. In an ex vivo trial, it was observed that Ca2+ homeostasis can effectively be rescued in sheep lymphomonocytes exposed in vivo to a Se concentration of approximately 1.9 mM, that was achieved by feeding sheep with olive leaves previously sprayed with 500 mg/plant Na-selenate. Thus the results obtained suggest that the mode of action of selenium markedly influenced Ca2+-related signaling events. Furthermore, results clearly reveal that the protective effect of Se on Ca2+ homeostasis under oxidative challenge can be clearly and effectively achieved through an appropriate dietary regimen obtained also in a circular economy logic using pruning of olive trees treated to reduce tree drought stress.
Ruminant livestock systems contribute significantly to emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas as they waste a portion of the ingested energy (2–15%) as methane and a large proportion (75–95%) ...of the ingested nitrogen as ammonia. Recently, numerous researches have been conducted to evaluate plant secondary metabolites, including essential oils (EO), as natural feed additives in ruminant nutrition and to exploit their potential to improve rumen fermentation efficiency. Essential oils appeared to be very promising compounds as they selectively reduced methane production and protein breakdown in both in vitro and in vivo studies. However, in some studies, the use of EO as feed additives was accompanied with decreased feed degradability and lowered volatile fatty acid. These adverse effects could be attributed to their broad and often non-specific antimicrobial activities within the rumen. Future research should be directed to identification of the active and useful EO compounds, optimization of EO doses, and use of a whole-farm approach with a focus on animal welfare, performance and economic benefits.
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•Ruminants contributes 16–25% to the global greenhouse gases emissions.•Decrease methane emission and nitrogen excretion from ruminant livestock industry is urgently needed.•Essential oils have been shown to be promising feed additives in mitigating methane and ammonia emissions.•Essential oils have showed inconsistent results about feed degradability and VFA production.•The mode of action and activities of essential oils on rumen microbiome remain poorly understood.
Summary
The aim of this work was to study the effect of rosemary leaf dietary supplementation on the antioxidant activities and total phenolic content of Pecorino cheese. Three hundred and ...twenty‐four sheep were randomly assigned to two dietary groups, which received a standard diet based on lucerne hay and concentrate (400 g per day). The concentrate of the rosemary supplemented group contained 2.50% dried rosemary leaves. The trial lasted 7 weeks. Cheesemaking was performed 3, 5 and 7 weeks from the start of the trial. The Pecorino cheese antioxidant activity was modified by the diet. Rosemary supplementation increased the total phenolic content, enhanced the antioxidant properties and decreased the lipid oxidation of cheese. A slight decrease in flavour was detected in cheeses after 7 weeks of rosemary administration.
The duration of rosemary supplementation (3 – T1, 5 – T2 and 7 – T3 weeks from the start of the trial) affected the antioxidant capacity of ewe's cheese.
Other than representing the main source of nutrition for newborn mammals, milk delivers a sophisticated signaling system from mother to child that promotes postnatal health. The bioactive components ...transferred through the milk intake are important for the development of the newborn immune system and include oligosaccharides, lactoferrin, lysozyme, α-La, and immunoglobulins. In the last 15 years, a pivotal role in this mother-to-child exchange has been attributed to extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are micro- and nanosized structures enclosed in a phospholipidic double-layer membrane that are produced by all cell types and released in the extracellular environment, reaching both close and distant cells. EVs mediate the intercellular cross-talk from the producing to the receiving cell through the transfer of molecules contained within them such as proteins, antigens, lipids, metabolites, RNAs, and DNA fragments. The complex cargo can induce a wide range of functional modulations in the recipient cell (i.e., anti-inflammatory, immunomodulating, angiogenetic, and pro-regenerative modulations) depending on the type of producing cells and the stimuli that these cells receive. EVs can be recovered from every biological fluid, including blood, urine, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, saliva, bile, and milk, which is one of the most promising scalable vesicle sources. This review aimed to present the state-of-the-art of animal-milk-derived EV (mEV) studies due to the exponential growth of this field. A focus on the beneficial potentialities for human health and the issues of studying vesicles from milk, particularly for the analytical methodologies applied, is reported.
The aim was to assess the effects of
(AN) with/without
C-3102 as alternative treatments for Chronic Inflammatory Enteropathy (CIE) of dogs. Fourteen CIE patients, which had received the same control ...(CTR) diet, were enrolled to serially receive three diets: (1) hydrolysed protein (HP) diet; (2) 4.0% AN supplemented HP (HPA) food, (3) HPA diet fortified with 125 billion
C-3102 spores/10 kg body weight (HPAB diet). Clinical outcome was assessed by Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease Activity Index (CIBDAI), whereas gut microbiota compositional variations were investigated via 16S rRNA gene analysis, and faecal fermentation end-products by liquid chromatography. Higher abundances of the
and
families were shown in HPA relative to CTR treatment, with
genus being differentially abundant on HPAB diet. Concentrations of acetate were higher (
< 0.05) in dogs fed HPA compared to CTR diet, and amounts of isovalerate and isobutyrate were greater (
< 0.05) in HPA compared to HP food. A tendency for higher amounts of faecal butyrate was found for the HPAB treatment (
= 0.06). Comprehensively, while displaying potentially positive effects on faecal fermentations, the tested substances failed to improve CIBDAI scores and microbial richness in CIE dogs.
Among oregano properties, its antioxidant and antibacterial effects are particularly interesting. Oregano is also able to induce a higher glycoconjugate production in gut, creating a physical barrier ...against microorganisms. This study evaluated the effects of adding an aqueous extract of oregano (OAE) to the diet of two homogenous groups of pigs during the finisher phase. The diets were as follows: control commercial diet (CTR group) and CTR diet supplemented (2 g/kg) with OAE (O group). Samples of ileum and caecum from the two groups were examined by conventional histochemistry to analyze complex carbohydrates and by immunohistochemistry to detect Bcl-2 Associate X protein (BAX), an indicator of oxidative stress. Glyco-histochemistry showed significant differences between the two groups. Immunohistochemistry revealed a lower presence of BAX in O group. The OAE supplementation improved the production of glycoconjugates, able to enhance in pig the protection of intestinal mucosa by means of direct and indirect defense actions. The reduced BAX immunostaining observed in O group may be an indicator of enhanced antioxidant action promoted by oregano. The results of this study can be used in further research to identify ways to improve endogenous defence ability, with the aim of reducing antibiotic use and preventing antimicrobial resistance.
The Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthier food habits and olive oil is one of its key components. Olive oil polyphenols are known to induce beneficial effects in several pathological ...conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease, and to contrast the proliferation of cancer cells or hypercholesterolemia. Polyphenols are also present in waste products derived from the olive industry: olive mill wastewaters (OMWW) are rich in polyphenols and there is an increasing interest in using OMWW in animal nutrition. OMWW are attributed with positive effects in promoting chicken performance and the quality of food-derived products. However, a tissue-specific transcriptome target analysis of chickens fed with OMWW has never been attempted.
We explored the effect of dietary OMWW on the intestinal function in broilers. A morphological analysis of the jejunum revealed that OMWW reduced crypt depth, whereas no significant modifications were observed for villus height and the villus height/crypt depth ratio. An RNA Sequencing analysis was performed on isolated, intestinal, epithelial cells and 280 differentially expressed genes were found using a count-based approach. An enrichment analysis revealed that the majority of up regulated genes in the OMWW group were over-represented by the regulation of viral genome replication-related GO-Terms, whereas down regulated genes were mainly involved in cholesterol and lipid metabolism.
Our study showed how an industrial waste product can be recycled as a feed additive with a positive relapse. OMWW dietary supplementation can be a nutritional strategy to improve chicken performance and health, prevent intestinal damage, enhance innate immunity and regulate cholesterol metabolism and fat deposition.
Chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE) refers to a heterogeneous group of idiopathic diseases of the dog characterised by persistent gastrointestinal (GI) clinical signs. If conventional dietary ...treatment alone would be unsuccessful, management of CIE is traditionally attained by the use of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs. While being rather effective, however, these drugs are endowed with side effects, which may impact negatively on the animal's quality of life. Therefore, novel, safe and effective therapies for CIE are highly sought after. As gut microbiota imbalances are often associated with GI disorders, a compelling rationale exists for the use of nonpharmacological methods of microbial manipulation in CIE, such as faecal microbiota transplantation and administration of pre-, pro-, syn- and postbiotics. In addition to providing direct health benefits to the host via a gentle modulation of the intestinal microbiota composition and function, these treatments may also possess immunomodulatory and epithelial barrier-enhancing actions. Likewise, intestinal barrier integrity, along with mucosal inflammation, are deemed to be two chief therapeutic targets of mesenchymal stem cells and selected vegetable-derived bioactive compounds. Although pioneering studies have revealed encouraging findings regarding the use of novel treatment agents in CIE, a larger body of research is needed to address fully their mode of action, efficacy and safety.
It has been reported that conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers are considered particularly beneficial to human health and affect the technological properties of pork meat products such as salami. ...The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of 0.5% CLA supplementation of heavy pig diets on the chemical composition, total fatty acids (FA), oxidative stability, sensory and microbial properties of Ciauscolo and Fabriano salami. The incorporation of CLA into the diet did not modify the chemical, microbial or sensory descriptive analysis of the salami. The CLA dietary supplementation changed the proportions of FA, in particular leading to an increase in the proportion of saturated fatty acids and CLA in both Ciauscolo and Fabriano salami. The results of consumer testing showed a higher degree of liking by consumers when the CLA sample was accompanied by product information, demonstrating the strong influence of the label on consumer perception. The interesting finding was the increase in the oxidative stability of the salami at the end of ripening. This confirms the hypothesis that CLA can affect the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids/monounsaturated FA ratio in meat products and possesses antioxidative properties that can be transferred, through dietary supplementation, to salami.
Practical applications: Feeding a 0.5% CLA diet to finisher pigs resulted in changes in the proportions of FA and enhanced the oxidative stability of salami but did not modify the sensory properties of the products. More research is needed to find the right inclusion level of CLA to be considered optimal from the point of view of producing a high quality product with superior organoleptical, technological and potential health‐related properties.
Production of value‐added meat products, such as conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) enriched Ciauscolo and Fabriano salamis, by the inclusion of the c9 t11 and t10 c12 CLA isomers in the swine diet.
Production of value‐added meat products, such as conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) enriched Ciauscolo and Fabriano salamis, by the inclusion of the c9 t11 and t10 c12 CLA isomers in the swine diet.
In recent years, the increased demand for agri-food products to feed livestock species has stimulated research to identify novel solutions for the valorization of natural waste, according to the ...modern concept of a circular economy. Numerous studies have shown the use of plant-derived and agro-industrial co-products that are sources of bioactive molecules for preparing animal feeds. Supplementation with co-products derived from the extraction of olive oil (i.e., olive pomace, olive mill wastewater, olive cake and olive leaf) in diet has been widely considered in recent decades, because these wastes are produced in high quantity and their re-use represents an innovative economic and environmental strategy. Olive oil co-products are characterized by various bioactive molecules such as polyphenols, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. Among them, polyphenols are the nutraceuticals most studied, showing to promote health effects in both humans and animals. Olive oil co-products and their phenolic extracts have shown many beneficial and promising effects when added to the diets of monogastric animals, by improving performance parameters and maintaining the oxidative status of meat and derived products. This review provides an update on the use of olive co-products in monogastric animal (swine, poultry and rabbit) diets and their effects on the productive performance, meat quality characteristics and gut health status.