Publications by authors named "Dongyan Niu"

Bacteriophages (phages for short) are the most abundant biological entities on Earth and are natural enemies of bacteria. Genomics and molecular biology have identified subtle and complex relationships among phages, bacteria and their animal hosts. This review covers composition, diversity and factors affecting gut phage, their lifecycle in the body, and interactions with bacteria and hosts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Weaning goats can get diarrhea and have weak immune systems because of stress related to their diet and environment.
  • A study tested a Chinese herb called UGAM to see if it helps improve the health and immunity of these goats.
  • Results showed that goats on a diet with UGAM had better immune responses and fewer bad germs in their intestines, suggesting UGAM could be good for keeping them healthy during the stressful weaning period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Foodborne illness is exacerbated by novel and emerging pathotypes, persistent contamination, antimicrobial resistance, an ever-changing environment, and the complexity of food production systems. Sporadic and outbreak events of common foodborne pathogens like Shiga toxigenic . (STEC), , , and are increasingly identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Shiga toxin () is the principal virulence factor of the foodborne pathogen, Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) O157:H7 and is associated with various lambdoid bacterio (phages). A comparative genomic analysis was performed on STEC O157 isolates from cattle ( = 125) and clinical ( = 127) samples to characterize virulence genes, -phage insertion sites and antimicrobial resistance genes that may segregate strains circulating in the same geographic region. In silico analyses revealed that O157 isolates harboured the toxin subtypes and Most cattle (76.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of commercial slow-release urea (SRU) on in vitro fermentation characteristics, nutrient digestibility, gas production, microbial protein synthesis and bacterial community using a rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC). The experiment was a completely randomized design with four treatments and four replications of each treatment. Treatments were: control diet (no SRU addition), control diet plus 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Zearalenone (ZEN) is widely found in food and feed. Its cytotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, genetic toxicity, immunotoxicity and hepatorenal toxicity have serious impacts on human and animal health. In order to help animals avoid ZEN poisoning in feed, ZEN-degrading bacterial strains were screened from fecal samples through a zearalenone challenge pig model, and their degradation characteristics were researched.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

For decades, vaccinations have been used to limit infectious bronchitis (IB) in both the broiler and layer industries. Depending on the geographical area, live attenuated vaccines are used either alone or in combination with inactivated vaccines to control infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) infections. It has been shown that administering inactivated vaccines preceded by priming with live attenuated vaccines in pullets protects laying hens against IB.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Brewers' spent grain (BSG) typically contains 20% - 29% crude protein (CP) with high concentrations of glutamine, proline and hydrophobic and non-polar amino acid, making it an ideal material for producing value-added products like bioactive peptides which have antioxidant properties. For this study, protein was extracted from BSG, hydrolyzed with 1% alcalase and flavourzyme, with the generated protein hydrolysates (AlcH and FlaH) showing antioxidant activities. This study evaluated the effects of AlcH and FlaH on gas production, ruminal fermentation characteristics, nutrient disappearance, microbial protein synthesis and microbial community using an artificial rumen system (RUSITEC) fed a high-grain diet.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Emerging evidence suggests that the tripartite motif containing 62 (TRIM62), a member of the TRIM family, plays an important role in antiviral processes. The objective of the study was to explore the role of TRIM62 in reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) infection and its potential molecular mechanism. We first demonstrated that the REV infection affected the TRIM62 expression first upregulated and then downregulated in CEF cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Our previous study suggested that supplementation of high-grain diets with ruminally protected and non-protected active dried yeast (ADY) may potentially reduce manure pathogen excretion by feedlot cattle. We hypothesized that feeding ruminally protected ADY might change the fecal bacterial community of finishing cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding ruminally protected and non-protected ADY to finishing beef steers on their fecal bacterial community.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF