Co-evolution of the humoral immune and serotonergic systems in chickens selected for high or low blood antibody titer response to sheep red blood cells.

Serotonin is a potent immunomodulatory neurohormone. Activities of the serotonergic and immune systems are often reported together in poultry studies with unidirectional analyses focused on serotonergic signaling mediating immune response. Considering serotonin's relevance across a range of immune-related poultry topics, elucidation of whether the immune system affects the serotonergic system can provide valuable insights into the bi-directionality of poultry neuroendocrine-immune interactions.

Linking norepinephrine production and performance to diet-induced low-grade, chronic inflammation in the intestine of broilers.

Maintenance of intestinal health is critical to successful poultry production and one of the goals of the poultry production industry. For decades the poultry industry has relied upon the inclusion of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) to achieve this goal and improve growth performance. With the removal of AGPs, the emergence of chronic, low-level gut inflammation has come to the forefront of concern in the poultry industry with the diet being the primary source of inflammatory triggers.

Cold stress initiates catecholaminergic and serotonergic responses in the chicken gut that are associated with functional shifts in the microbiome.

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the sustainability of global poultry production. Stress resulting from extreme temperature swings, including cold snaps, is a major concern for food production birds. Despite being well-documented in mammals, the effect of environmental stress on enteric neurophysiology and concomitant impact on host-microbiome interactions remains poorly understood in birds.

Significant Microbial Changes Are Evident in the Reproductive Tract of Pregnant Rhesus Monkeys at Mid-Gestation but Their Gut Microbiome Does Not Shift until Late Gestation.

Vaginal and rectal specimens were obtained from cycling, pregnant, and nursing rhesus monkeys to assess pregnancy-related changes in the commensal bacteria in their reproductive and intestinal tracts. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, significant differences were found only in the vagina at mid-gestation, not in the hindgut. To verify the apparent stability in gut bacterial composition at mid-gestation, the experiment was repeated with additional monkeys, and similar results were found with both 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic sequencing.

Catecholamine concentrations in duck eggs are impacted by hen exposure to heat stress.

Rapid "fight-or-flight" responses to stress are largely orchestrated by the catecholamines. Moreover, catecholamines and catecholamine precursors are widely recognized to act as interkingdom signaling molecules among host and microbiota, as well as to serve as chemotactic signals for bacterial foodborne pathogens. While albumen and yolk concentrations of glucocorticoids have received extensive attention as non-invasive indicators of hen response to stress, little is known regarding the impact of the hen's stress response on catecholamine and catecholamine precursor concentrations.