Effects of ileo-rectal anastomosis on cholesterol metabolism in pigs fed either casein or extruded soya beans

The importance of legume proteins in the cholesterol metabolism has been recognized in different animals, but the contribution of large intestine to this process is still unclear. The present study was undertaken to compare a casein based diet (C) with a diet, where 60% of the protein supplied by casein was replaced by extruded soybean (ES) on cholesterol metabolism of pigs with (I) and without ileo-rectal anastomosis (IRA). Four groups of six growing pigs (28.0 kg) were assigned to the treatments. All the animals presented a moderate hypercholesterolemia and there were no significant differences, due to the protein source or IRA, in LDL- and HDL- cholesterol plasma concentrations. ES significantly depressed (P0.01) total, free and esters of hepatic cholesterol and increased (P<0.01) hepatic total lipids concentration. There were significant (P<0.05) interactions between diet and IRA on HMG CoA reductase and cholesterol 7- hydroxylase activities, but 27–hydroxylase activity was unaffected. Feeding ES showed a tendency (P=0.056) to decrease the activity of LDL liver receptors, depressed free (P0.05), total cholesterol (P0.01) and total bile acid concentration in bile (P0,001), and increased (P0.05) neutral sterols fecal output. There were interactions effects (P0.05) between diet and IRA in the proportion of microbial sterols, bile acid fecal output and proportion of primary and secondary fecal acids. Nevertheless the effects over hepatic cholesterol and neutral sterol output promoted by ES diets, it wasn’t verified any hypocholesterolemic effect, which could be more related with soybean protein structure and LDL receptors modulation

Enhancing meat quality of weaned piglets with the dietary incorporation of Ulva lactuca and carbohydrases supplementation

Pubmed Free articleThe impact of the dietary incorporation of 7% Ulva lactuca, a green seaweed, on the quality and nutritional value of piglet’s meat was assessed. U. lactuca is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds but its cell wall is composed of complex polysaccharides that reduce their bioavailability. Therefore, the effect of supplementing piglet diets with exogenous carbohydrases was also assessed here. A total of 40 male weaned piglets were divided into four dietary groups, each with 10 piglets: control (wheat, maize and soybean meal-based diet), UL (7% U. lactuca replacing the control diet), UL +R (UL and 0.005% Rovabio®), and UL +E (UL and 0.01% ulvan lyase). The piglets were fed the diets for 2 weeks. The results showed that incorporating U. lactuca in piglet diets did not influence most of the meat quality traits (P >0.05). However, the incorporation of U. lactuca with the commercial carbohydrase (UL +R) increased the amount of the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) in their meat (P =0.011) compared with the control, by 54%. In addition, meat from piglets fed seaweed diets showed a nearly two-fold increase in iodine contents (P <0.001). Meat tenderness, juiciness and overall acceptability of piglets fed the control diet and the UL diet were lower than those fed the diets containing seaweed and carbohydrases (P <0.001). Overall, the findings indicate that 7% U. lactuca in the diets of weaned piglets had no major detrimental effects on meat quality and their carbohydrase supplementation has the potential to improve meat sensory traits.Funding: This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through PTDC/CAL-ZOO/30238/2017 grant, associated with a post-doc contract to M.C., and PhD fellowships to J.M. P. (SFRH/BPD/116816/2016) and D.M.R. (SFRH/BD/143992/2019). CIISA (UIDB/00276/2020), AL4AnimalS (LA/P/0059/2020) and LEAF (UIDB/04129/2020) grants, also from FCT, are also acknowledged. The authors acknowledge Teresa Costa from Indukern, Lda. (Sintra, Portugal), for the Rovabio® Excel AP kind donation. The graphical abstract was created using BioRender.com (https://biorender.com/).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of Feeding Weaned Piglets with Laminaria digitata on the Quality and Nutritional Value of Meat

Laminaria digitata is a novel feedstuff that can be used in pig diets to replace conventional feedstuffs. However, its resilient cell wall can prevent the monogastric digestive system from accessing intracellular nutrients. Carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) supplementation is a putative solution for this problem, degrading the cell wall during digestion. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of 10% L. digitata feed inclusion and CAZyme supplementation on the meat quality and nutritional value of weaned piglets. Forty weaned piglets were randomly allocated to four experimental groups (n = 10): control, LA (10% L. digitata, replacing the control diet), LAR (LA + CAZyme (0.005% Rovabio® Excel AP)) and LAL (LA + CAZyme (0.01% alginate lyase)) and the trial lasted for two weeks. The diets had no effect on any zootechnical parameters measured (p > 0.05) and meat quality traits, except for the pH measured 24 h post-mortem, which was higher in LAL compared to LA (p = 0.016). Piglets fed with seaweed had a significantly lower n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio compared to control, to which the higher accumulation of C20:5n-3 (p = 0.001) and C18:4n-3 (p < 0.0001) contributed. In addition, meat of seaweed-fed piglets was enriched with bromine (Br, p < 0.001) and iodine (I, p < 0.001) and depicted a higher oxidative stability. This study demonstrates that the nutritional value of piglets’ meat could be improved by the dietary incorporation of L. digitata, regardless of CAZyme supplementation, without negatively affecting growth performance in the post-weaning stageinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ocorrência de ixodidae parasitos de capivara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris linnaeus, 1766) na estação ecológica do Taim, Rio Grande - RS, Brasil Occurence of ixodidae parasites of capybara (Hydrochoeurus hydrochaeris linnaeus, 1766) in the ecologic area of Taim, Rio Grande - RS, Brazil

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as espécies de carrapatos observadas sobre capivaras na Estação Ecológica do Taim, Rio Grande- RS, Brasil. Foram examinadas 27 capivaras encontradas mortas por atropelamento na BR 471, em seu trecho que corta a Estação, sendo cole lados 497 carrapatos das espécies Amblyomma cooperi (=A. lutzi; = A. ypisilophorum), Amblyomma triste, Amblyomma tigrinum e ninfas do gênero Amblyomma. A. cooperi representou 68,41% dos carrapatos identificados, com uma freqüência de parasitismo de 92,60% dos hospedeiros, enquanto A. triste representou 24,75% dos carrapatos em 44,43% dos hospedeiros e A. tigrinum foi coletado em 14,81% dos hospedeiros, totalizando 1,21% dos carrapatos. As ninfas de Amblyomma sp. foram cotetadas em 18,51% dos hospedeiros apresentando um percentual de 5,63% do total de carrapatos. A relação macho : fêmea apresentou valores de 2,3 : 1 e 2 : l para o A. cooperi e A. triste, respectivamente. Todos hospedeiros apresentavam-se parasitados, com uma média de 18,4 carrapatos, variando de 1 a 64 carrapatos coletados por hospedeiro.<br>The aim of this article was the identification ofthe tick species observed on capybara in wildlife in the Ecologic Area of Taim, Rio Grande - RS; Brazil. Twenly seven capybaras found dead by trample in the road BR 471 in the Ecologic Area, wereexamined ticks coilected of the species Amblyomma cooperi (= A. lutzi and = A. ypisilophorum), Amblyomma triste, Amblyomma tigrinum and ninphs of the Genus Amblyomma. Amblyomma cooperi represented 68.41% of the ticks with a frequency of parasitism of 92.60% of the hosts; Amblyomma triste species represented 24.75% of the collected ticks m 44.43% of the hosts; Amblyomma tigrinum species were coilected m 14.81% of the hosts from a total of 1.21% of the found ticks and, the nimphs of Amblyomma were coilected in 18.51% of the hosts per forming 5.63% of the ali ticks coilected. The relation mate .female showed values of 2.3:1 and 2:1 to A. cooperiand and A. triste, respectivety. All examined hosts were found wiih ticks, with a mean of 18.4 ticks per host

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora