Editorial: Factors Influencing Biomarker Range Intervals in Farm Animals

A wide variety of biomarkers are used in farm animals for different purposes such as diagnostic testing, animal health monitoring, and serological surveillance and management of a farm. However, the presence of non-pathologic factors represents a challenge for valid and reliable biomarker use. These factors will influence reference interval (RI) and interpretation of biomarker test results. They are defined by intra-species genetic variability, and different physiological and environmental conditions, and their impact might be biological and/or analytical. In this special issue, our contributors have addressed some of the problems related with these factors. Harmonization of veterinary biomarker calibration procedures and reagents is also a must for the rationale use of biomarkers, as pointed out in one of the articles. Yu et al. studied the effects of several variables on the serum biochemical RIs in young animals: age, season of birth and sex in calves and age and sex in piglets. The study comprised unweaned calves (at 24 h and 2, 5, and 7 weeks of age) and piglets from weaning at 21 days old to 35 days of life. In calves, season of birth did not affect the distribution of values of the studied analytes while age-biased differences were noticed. The authors showed that hepatic enzymes, renal markers, antioxidant enzymes (glutatione..

The effects of colostrum consumption and feed restriction during marketing and transportation of male dairy beef calves: Impact on pre-transport nutritional status and on farm recovery

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of colostrum consumption and feed restriction on biomarkers of stress, nutritional and health status, gut functionality, and behavior in male dairy beef calves being marketed and transported. A total of 82 male Holstein calves [42 ± 1.2 kg of body weight and 14 ± 0.9 d of age] were used to study the amount of colostrum given at birth at the dairy farm of origin, the degree of feed restriction suffered at an assembly center simulation (d −4 to d −1), and the effects of a 19 h transportation (d −1). Treatments were as follows: control calves (CTRL; n = 16) were fed 10 L of colostrum at the dairy farm of origin, milk replacer (MR) and concentrate at the assembly center, and were not transported; high colostrum-milk replacer fed calves (HCMR; n = 17) were fed 10 L of colostrum at the dairy farm of origin, MR at the assembly center, and were transported; high colostrum-rehydrating solution fed calves (HCRS; n = 16) were fed 10 L of colostrum at the dairy farm of origin, a rehydrating solution (RS) at the assembly center, and were transported; low colostrum-milk replacer fed calves (LCMR; n = 17), were fed 2 L of colostrum at the dairy farm of origin, MR at the assembly center, and were transported; and low colostrum-rehydrating solution fed calves (LCRS; n = 16) were fed 2 L of colostrum at the dairy farm of origin, RS at the assembly center, and were transported. Transported calves mimic a 19 h long transportation. After transport, all calves were fed 2.5 L of MR twice daily and had ad libitum access to concentrate, straw, and water. Calves' recovery was followed during 7 d. Concentrate intake and health records were collected daily from d −4 until d 7 and BW and blood samples were collected on d - 4, - 1, 0, 1, 2, and 7 of the study. Results showed that the feeding regimen provided at the assembly center reduced BW for the HCRS and LCRS calves compared with the CTRL, HCMR, and LCMR calves. Concentrate intake peaked on d 0 in the transported calves followed by a drop in intake on d 1 after transportation. Concentrate intake recovery was lower for the LCRS and LCMR calves. On d −1, nonesterified fatty acids and β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations were greater for the HCRS and LCRS calves compared with the CTRL, HCMR, and HCRS calves. After transportation, serum Cr-EDTA concentration was greater for the HCRS and LCRS calves than the HCMR, LCMR, and CTRL calves. The LCRS calves had the lowest serum concentration of citrulline. Finally, health scores were greater for the LCRS calves from d 0 to d 7. In summary, both the greatest degree of feed restriction during the assembly center and the low colostrum consumption at birth negatively affected the recovery of concentrate consumption and BW, gut functionality, health status, and behavior in calves after arrival at the rearing farm.This work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Gobierno de España, Spain (grant no. PID2019-104021RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). The authors are also indebted to AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain) for project 2021 SGR 01552. We are grateful to CERCA Programme (Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain). The authors thank the collaboration of the personnel of Granja Selergan, S.A. (Lleida, Spain), Maria Vidal, Marina Tortadès, Xavier Vergara, and Anna Solé (IRTA, Caldes de Montbui, Spain) for their technical assistance with animals' care and sampling. The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metabolome and proteome changes in skeletal muscle and blood of pre-weaning calves fed leucine and threonine supplemented diets

In pre-weaning calves, both leucine and threonine play important roles in growth and muscle metabolism. In this study, metabolomics, proteomics and clinical chemistry were used to assess the effects of leucine and threonine supplementation added to milk replacer on 14 newborn Holstein male calves: 7 were fed a control diet (Ctrl) and 7 were fed the Ctrl diet supplemented with 0.3% leucine and 0.3% threonine (LT) from 5.6 days of age to 53.6 days. At this time, blood and semitendinosus muscle biopsies were collected for analysis. Integrated metabolomics and proteomics showed that branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) degradation and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism (citrate cycle and respiratory chain) were the main activated pathways in muscle because of the supplementation. BCAA derivatives and metabolites related to lipid mobilization showed the major changes. The deleterious effects of activated oxidative phosphorylation were balanced by the upregulation of antioxidant proteins. An increase in protein synthesis was indicated by elevated aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and increased S6 ribosomal protein phosphorylation in skeletal muscle. In conclusion, LT group showed greater BCAA availability and mitochondrial oxidative activity; as the muscle cells undergo greater aerobic metabolism, antioxidant defenses were activated to compensate for possible cell damage. Data are available via ProteomeXchange (PXD016098)info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost