Bone histomorphometry of broilers submitted to different phosphorus sources in growing and finisher rations

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar alterações histomorfológicas na região do osso cortical de frangos de corte alimentados, nas fases de crescimento e engorda, com rações contendo cinco diferentes fontes de fósforo fosfato dicálcico, superfosfato simples, superfosfato triplo, fosfato monoamônio e fosfato de rocha de Araxá. Imagens histológicas foram digitalizadas, segmentadas em regiões de interesse (ROI) e analisadas por meio de algoritmos desenvolvidos no ambiente de programação SCILAB. Consideraram-se onze características para descrição das imagens: porcentagem de osso por área, área da ROI, perímetro da ROI, alongamento da ROI, ângulo da ROI, os respectivos desvios-padrão dessas medidas, a entropia dos ângulos das ROI e uma medida orientada de textura (lacunaridade). A substituição do fosfato dicálcico, nas rações de crescimento e engorda, por qualquer uma das outras fontes de fósforo testadas, causou mudanças significativas na histomorfologia do córtex ósseo dos frangos de corte, tais como: menor porcentagem de osso por área, aumento da área das lacunas e menor homogeneidade da matriz. As alterações foram mais pronunciadas nos tratamentos que receberam fosfato de rocha de Araxá, fonte de maior nível de flúor, do que nos tratamentos com superfosfato simples, superfosfato triplo e fosfato monoamônio, os quais foram semelhantes entre si.The objective of this work was to identify alterations in the histomorphology of the cortical bone tissue of broilers submitted to growing and finisher rations formulated with five different sources of phosphorus: dicalcium phosphate, simple superphosphate, triple superphosphate, monoammonium phosphate and Araxá rock phosphate. Histological images had their components segmented, and were called regions of interest (ROI). Images were analyzed through developed algorithms, using the SCILAB mathematical environment. Eleven features were considered in order to obtain a complete description of the bone images: percentage of bone by area, ROI area, ROI perimeters, ROI elongation, ROI angle and their respective standard deviations, besides entropy of ROI angles and a texture-oriented measure (lacunarity). The substitution of dicalcium phosphate in growing and finisher rations for any other tested source of phosphorus caused significant changes on the hystomorphology of the cortical broilers bones, for example: diminution of bone percentage by area, increase of lacuna area and worse matrix homogeneity. Changes were more pronounced in the Araxá rock phosphate treatments, with the highest fluorine content, than in simple superphosphate, triple superphosphate and monoammonium phosphate treatments, which were similar

An insight into the sialome of Simulium guianense (DIPTERA:SIMulIIDAE), the main vector of River Blindness Disease in Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about the composition and function of the saliva in black flies such as <it>Simulium guianense</it>, the main vector of river blindness disease in Brazil. The complex salivary potion of hematophagous arthropods counteracts their host's hemostasis, inflammation, and immunity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Transcriptome analysis revealed ubiquitous salivary protein families--such as the Antigen-5, Yellow, Kunitz domain, and serine proteases--in the <it>S. guianense </it>sialotranscriptome. Insect-specific families were also found. About 63.4% of all secreted products revealed protein families found only in <it>Simulium</it>. Additionally, we found a novel peptide similar to kunitoxin with a structure distantly related to serine protease inhibitors. This study revealed a relative increase of transcripts of the SVEP protein family when compared with <it>Simulium vittatum </it>and <it>S. nigrimanum </it>sialotranscriptomes. We were able to extract coding sequences from 164 proteins associated with blood and sugar feeding, the majority of which were confirmed by proteome analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results contribute to understanding the role of <it>Simulium </it>saliva in transmission of <it>Onchocerca volvulus </it>and evolution of salivary proteins in black flies. It also consists of a platform for mining novel anti-hemostatic compounds, vaccine candidates against filariasis, and immuno-epidemiologic markers of vector exposure.</p

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Relationship between the morphological aspect of broiler feces and its bacterial composition

Analisar o aspecto fecal de frangos pode revelar de modo precoce, alterações que poderão ser relacionadas a problemas entéricos, que em grande parte das vezes ocorrem devido ao desequilíbrio da microbiota intestinal (disbiose). Deste modo, o presente estudo teve como objetivo utilizar análises de metagenômica para analisar a relação entre o aspecto morfológico de fezes de frangos e sua respectiva composição bacteriana. O estudo foi composto por um total de oito grupos, os grupos 1, 2 e 3 analisaram fezes com passagem de ração (PR), nos escores 1, 2 e 3, respectivamente. Os grupos 4, 5 e 6 analisaram fezes com muco avermelhado (MA), nos escores 1, 2 e 3, respectivamente. O grupo 7 analisou fezes ileais normais (FIN) e o grupo 8 analisou descargas cecais (DC). Cada grupo foi composto por seis amostras, totalizando 48 amostras. As amostras tiveram o DNA total extraído, e na sequência, se amplificou a região V4 do gene 16S rRNA. O sequenciamento foi realizado no sistema MiSeq e as reads produzidas foram de 2x250 pb. O programa DADA2 fez a modelagem e a correção de erros de amplicons sem a construção de OTUs. As diversidades alfa e beta, assim como, a abundância relativa dos filos e gêneros permitiram entender um pouco mais do comportamento das comunidades bacterianas em seus respectivos aspectos fecais. A diversidade alfa mostrou, através de curvas de rarefação, que as amostras atingiram seu máximo potencial de revelação gênica. E o index de Shannon revelou que o grupo DC apresentou maior diversidade, sendo estatisticamente diferente dos grupos PR-2, PR-3 e MA-1. A diversidade beta mostrou que somente as amostras do grupo DC foram homogêneas. A abundância relativa de filos revelou oito diferentes filos, sendo Firmicutes o mais abundante em todos os grupos, Proteobacteria o segundo mais abundante nos grupos que estudaram fezes ileais normais e suas alterações. Já o filo Bacteroidetes foi o segundo mais abundante no grupo DC. A abundância relativa dos gêneros revelou 136 diferentes gêneros bacterianos. Nos grupos que estudaram fezes ileais normais e suas alterações, os gêneros mais abundantes foram Lactobacillus e Escherichia/Shigella, com exceção do grupo PR-1 que teve essa ordem invertida. Diferente dos demais, o grupo DC teve maior abundância dos gêneros Bacteroides e Faecalibacterium. As análises estatísticas foram feitas com Teste t de Studant (P&lt;0,01). Avaliar o aspecto morfológico de fezes de frangos é tarefa fundamental, que possibilita agir de modo rápido evitando perdas de desempenho e econômicas causadas por disbiose. Desse modo, esse trabalho identificou, através de análises de metagenômica, a existência de 61 diferentes gêneros bacterianos entre o grupo 7 (FIN) e o grupo 8 (DC), assim como, uma variação dos gêneros bacterianos conforme o tipo de alteração fecal, sendo essa mais significativa nos grupos 4, 5 e 6, que estudaram muco avermelhado, mostrando existir uma variação da microbiota intestinal ao longo do dia, devido à ausência de alimento e maior quantidade de muco no intestino, causado pelo período de escuro (jejum).Analyzing the fecal aspect of chickens may reveal early changes that may be related to enteric problems, which in most cases occur due to intestinal microbiota imbalance (dysbiosis). Thus, the current study aimed to use metagenomic analyses to analyze the relationship between the morphological aspect of chicken feces and their respective bacterial composition. The study was composed by a total of eight groups, the groups 1, 2 and 3 analyzed feces with feed passage (FP), in scores 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The groups 4, 5 and 6 analyzed faeces with reddish mucus (RM), in the scores 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Group 7 analyzed normal ileal feces (NIF) and group 8 analyzed caecal discharges (CD). Each group was composed of six samples, totaling 48 samples. The samples had the total DNA extracted and in the sequence the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified. The sequencing was performed in the MiSeq system and the produced reads were 2x250 bp. The DADA2 program did the modeling and the correction of amplicons errors without the construction of OTUs. The alpha and beta diversities, as well as the relative abundance of the phylos and bacterial genus allowed to understand a little more about the behavior of bacterial communities in their respective fecal aspects. The alpha diversity showed through the rarefaction curves that the samples reached their maximum potential of gene revelation. And Shannon&rsquo;s index revealed that the CD group showed greater diversity, being statistically different from FP-2, FP-3 and RM-1 groups. The beta diversity showed that only the samples of the CD group were homogeneous. The relative abundance of phylos revealed eight different phylos, being Firmicutes the most abundant in all groups, Proteobacteria the second most abundant in the groups that studied normal ileal feces and their alterations. The phylos Bacteroidetes was the second most abundant in the CD group. The relative abundance of genus revealed 136 different bacterial genus. In the groups that studied normal ileal feces and their alterations, the most abundant genus were Lactobacillus and Escherichia/Shigella, with the exception of the FP-1 group, which had this order reversed. Unlike the others, the CD group had more abundance of the genus Bacteroides and Faecalibacterium. The statistical analyses were done with Studant\'s t test (P&lt;0.01). To evaluate the morphological aspect of chicken feces is a fundamental task, which makes it possible to act quickly avoiding performance and economic losses caused by dysbiosis. Thus, this work identified through metagenomic analyses the existence of 61 different bacterial genus between group 7 (NIF) and group 8 (CD), as well as, a variation of the bacterial genus according to the type of fecal alteration, being this variation more significant in groups 4, 5 and 6, that studied reddish mucus, showing to exist a variation of the intestinal microbiota throughout the day, due to the absence of feed and greater amount of mucus in the intestine, caused by the period of dark (fasting)