Intestinal Microbial Ecology of Broilers Vaccinated and Challenged With Mixed Eimeria Species, and Supplemented with Essential Oil Blends

Intestinal microbiota is an important component in the development of defense mechanisms in the gut mucosa. This project determined the dynamics of intestinal microbial communities (MC) of broilers vaccinated at first day of age with live oocysts of Eimeria species and fed diets supplemented with 2 specific essential oil (EO) blends, Crina Poultry (CP) and Crina Alternate (CA). Five treatments were analyzed: 1) unmedicated-uninfected (UU) control; 2) unmedicated-infected (UI) control; 3) vaccinated with Advent cocci-vaccine and without feed additive (COV) supplements; 4) vaccinated with Advent and supplemented with CP; and 5) vaccinated with Advent and supplemented with CA. The EO blends were added at 100 ppm to the same basal diets. Chicks were gavage-infected at 19 d of age with Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, and Eimeria tenella. Duodenal, ileal, and cecal samples were taken from 12 birds per treatment just before the infection and 7 d after the challenge, pooled in 6 samples, and frozen. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was used to examine PCR-amplified fragments of the bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA variable region. Results are presented as percentages of similarity coefficients (SC). Dendrograms of amplicon patterns indicated MC differences due to intestinal location, feed additives, and cocci infection. The EO blends CP and CA did affect MC in all gut sections. The cocci-infection caused drastic MC population shifts in duodenal, ileal, and cecal sections (36.7, 55.4, and 36.2% SC, respectively). The CP-supplemented birds had higher SC between pre- and postchallenge MC in duodenal and ileal (73.3, 81.8%) than COV (66.4, 66.5%). However, COV broilers had the smallest changes in cecal MC after infection (79.5% SC). We concluded that cocci-vaccination causes small changes in intestinal MC, but challenge causes drastic shifts. The EO blend supplementation modulates MC in cocci-vaccinated broilers, avoiding drastic shifts after a mixed coccidia infection. Correlations between MC dynamics and host responses are discussed

Effects of Feed Additives and Mixed Eimeria Species Infection on Intestinal Microbial Ecology of Broilers

Evaluation of digestive microbial ecology is necessary to understand effects of growth-promoting feed. In the current study, the dynamics of intestinal microbial communities (MC) were examined in broilers fed diets supplemented with a combination of antibiotic (bacitracin methylene disalicylate) and ionophore (Coban 60), and diets containing 1 of 2 essential oil (EO) blends, Crina Poultry (CP) and Crina Alternate (CA). Five treatments were analyzed: 1) unmedicated uninfected control; 2) unmedicated infected control; 3) feed additives monensin (bacitracin methylene disalicylate) + monensin (Coban 60; AI); 4) EO blend CP; and 5) EO blend CA. Additives were mixed into a basal feed mixture, and EO were adjusted to 100 ppm. Chicks were infected by oral gavage at 19 d of age with Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, and Eimeria tenella. Duodenal, ileal, and cecal samples were taken from 12 birds per treatment just before and 7 d after challenge; 2 samples each were pooled to give a final number of 6 samples total; and all pooled samples were frozen until used for DNA extraction. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was used to examine PCR-amplified fragments of the bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA variable region. Results are presented as percentages of similarity coefficients (SC). Dendrograms of PCR amplicon or band patterns indicated MC differences due to intestinal location, feed additives, and cocci challenge. Essential oil blends CP and CA affected MC in all gut sections. Each EO had different effects over MC, and they differed in most instances from the AI group. The cocci challenge caused drastic MC population shifts in duodenal, ileal, and cecal sections (36.7, 55.4, and 36.2% SC, respectively). Diets supplemented with CP supported higher SC between pre- and postchallenge MC (89.9, 83.3, and 76.4%) than AI (81.8., 57.4, and 60.0%). We concluded that mixed coccidia challenge caused drastic shifts in MC. These EO blends modulated MC better than AI, avoiding drastic shifts after a mixed challenge

Responses of Coccidia-Vaccinated Broilers to Essential Oil Blends Supplementation up to Forty-Nine Days of Age

Coccidiosis control may become a greater problem as the use of growth-promoting antibiotics (GPA) and ionophores declines. Vaccination with live oocysts may turn into a popular alternative to the use of coccidiostats in broilers, although cocci vaccination is frequently linked to temporary lower performance in young flocks. This experiment evaluates the dietary supplementation of 2 specific essential oil (EO) blends (Crina Poultry and Crina Alternate), either as alternatives to GPA and ionophores (BMD + Coban) or as feed additives that help to improve the performance of cocci-vaccinated broilers. Live performance and lesion scores were observed. These 2 specific EO blends differ in their efficacy to promote growth. Chickens that were not cocci vaccinated and were fed Crina Poultry had better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than the unmedicated control treatment in the starter period. The same EO improved FCR in cocci-vaccinated birds in the finisher period in comparison to the negative control group, but those responses were not significantly different from other treatments or significant at 49 d of age. No significant differences were observed in lesion scores at 37 d. Diets supplemented with a GPA-ionophore combination consistently supported the best BW gain and FCR in each period and the entire grow-out period. No significant beneficial or deleterious effects on live performance were observed due to these specific EO blends in cocci-vaccinated broilers

Enzymes as Feed Additive to Aid in Responses Against Eimeria Species in Coccidia-Vaccinated Broilers Fed Corn-Soybean Meal Diets with Different Protein Levels

This research aimed to evaluate the effects of adding a combination of exogenous enzymes to starter diets varying in protein content and fed to broilers vaccinated at day of hatch with live oocysts and then challenged with mixed Eimeria spp. Five hundred four 1-d-old male Cobb-500 chickens were distributed in 72 cages. The design consisted of 12 treatments. Three anticoccidial control programs [ionophore (IO), coccidian vaccine (COV), and coccidia-vaccine + enzymes (COV + EC)] were evaluated under 3 CP levels (19, 21, and 23%), and 3 unmedicated-uninfected (UU) negative controls were included for each one of the protein levels. All chickens except those in unmedicated-uninfected negative controls were infected at 17 d of age with a mixed oral inoculum of Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, and Eimeria tenella. Live performance, lesion scores, oocyst counts, and samples for gut microflora profiles were evaluated 7 d postinfection. Ileal digestibility of amino acids (IDAA) was determined 8 d postinfection. Microbial communities (MC) were analyzed by G + C%, microbial numbers were counted by flow cytometry, and IgA concentrations were measured by ELISA. The lowest CP diets had poorer (P ≤ 0.001) BW gain and feed conversion ratio in the preinfection period. Coccidia-vaccinated broilers had lower performance than the ones fed ionophore diets during pre- and postchallenge periods. Intestinal lesion scores were affected (P ≤ 0.05) by anticoccidial control programs, but responses changed according to gut section. Feed additives or vaccination had no effect (P ≥ 0.05) on IDAA, and diets with 23% CP had the lowest (P ≤ 0.001) IDAA. Coccidial infection had no effect on MC numbers in the ileum but reduced MC numbers in ceca and suppressed ileal IgA production. The COV + EC treatment modulated MC during mixed coccidiosis infection but did not significantly improve chicken performance. Results indicated that feed enzymes may be used to modulate the gut microflora of cocci-vaccinated broiler chickens

On the incorporation of interval-valued fuzzy sets into the Bousi-Prolog system: declarative semantics, implementation and applications

In this paper we analyse the benefits of incorporating interval-valued fuzzy sets into the Bousi-Prolog system. A syntax, declarative semantics and im- plementation for this extension is presented and formalised. We show, by using potential applications, that fuzzy logic programming frameworks enhanced with them can correctly work together with lexical resources and ontologies in order to improve their capabilities for knowledge representation and reasoning

Consumo de medicamentos en población adulta: influencia del autoconsumo

Objetivo El objetivo del estudio es conocer las características de la población que se asocian al consumo y autoconsumo de fármacos en Aragón. Diseño Estudio transversal a través de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud de 2006. Emplazamiento Comunidad autónoma de Aragón. Participantes Población adulta residente en Aragón. Mediciones principales Consumo y autoconsumo de fármacos, así como características sociodemográficas, de salud y de estilos de vida. Resultados El 65,1% de los adultos aragoneses habían consumido al menos un fármaco en las últimas 2 semanas, el 11,7% lo hizo sin receta médica. Se observó mayor consumo en las mujeres y en personas de mayor edad. El mal estado de salud percibido incrementaba de manera significativa el consumo de fármacos. Las personas con bajo nivel de estudios tenían mayor consumo, mientras que el autoconsumo fue más frecuente en el grupo de mayor nivel de estudios Conclusiones El consumo de fármacos en Aragón es elevado, así como la prevalencia de autoconsumo. Resulta de gran interés conocer el perfil de estos pacientes para poder realizar intervenciones dirigidas a reducir el consumo innecesario y mejorar la adecuación y seguridad de los fármacos utilizados Objective The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with medicine consumption and self-consumption in Aragón (Spain) Design Cross-sectional study from the National Health Survey 2006. Setting Aragón (Spain). Participants Adult population in Aragón (Spain). Main measurements Medicine consumption and the type of consumption. Demographic, health and health style variables were also considered. Results At least one drug was taken by the 65.1% of the adults in Aragón during the previous two weeks. Of this group, 11.7% were self-medicated. A higher frequency of consumption was observed in females and older people, and in those with a poor self-perceived health. People with a low educational level took drugs more often, but self-consumption was more frequent in the group with a high educational level. Conclusions Medicine consumption and self-consumption in adults in Aragón is common. It is of great interest to know the consumption profile of these patients in order to develop specific interventions to reduce unnecessary consumption and to improve safety

SSDSS IV MaNGA - Properties of AGN host galaxies

We present here the characterization of the main properties of a sample of 98 AGN host galaxies, both type-II and type-I, in comparison with those of about 2700 non-active galaxies observed by the MaNGA survey. We found that AGN hosts are morphologically early-type or early-spirals. For a given morphology AGN hosts are, in average, more massive, more compact, more central peaked and rather pressurethan rotational-supported systems. We confirm previous results indicating that AGN hosts are located in the intermediate/transition region between star-forming and non-star-forming galaxies (i.e., the so-called green valley), both in the ColorMagnitude and the star formation main sequence diagrams. Taking into account their relative distribution in terms of the stellar metallicity and oxygen gas abundance and a rough estimation of their molecular gas content, we consider that these galaxies are in the process of halting/quenching the star formation, in an actual transition between both groups. The analysis of the radial distributions of the starformation rate, specific star-formation rate, and molecular gas density shows that the quenching happens from inside-out involving both a decrease of the efficiency of the star formation and a deficit of molecular gas. All the intermediate data-products used to derive the results of our analysis are distributed in a database including the spatial distribution and average properties of the stellar populations and ionized gas, published as a Sloan Digital Sky Survey Value Added Catalog being part of the 14th Data Release: http://www.sdss.org/dr14/manga/manga-data/manga-pipe3d-value-added-catalog/Comment: 48 pages, 14 figures, in press in RMxA

Divergent abiotic spectral pathways unravel pathogen stress signals across species

Abstract: Plant pathogens pose increasing threats to global food security, causing yield losses that exceed 30% in food-deficit regions. Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) represents the major transboundary plant pest and one of the world’s most damaging pathogens in terms of socioeconomic impact. Spectral screening methods are critical to detect non-visual symptoms of early infection and prevent spread. However, the subtle pathogen-induced physiological alterations that are spectrally detectable are entangled with the dynamics of abiotic stresses. Here, using airborne spectroscopy and thermal scanning of areas covering more than one million trees of different species, infections and water stress levels, we reveal the existence of divergent pathogen- and host-specific spectral pathways that can disentangle biotic-induced symptoms. We demonstrate that uncoupling this biotic–abiotic spectral dynamics diminishes the uncertainty in the Xf detection to below 6% across different hosts. Assessing these deviating pathways against another harmful vascular pathogen that produces analogous symptoms, Verticillium dahliae, the divergent routes remained pathogen- and host-specific, revealing detection accuracies exceeding 92% across pathosystems. These urgently needed hyperspectral methods advance early detection of devastating pathogens to reduce the billions in crop losses worldwide

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV