Dietary Organic Acids Modulate Gut Microbiota and Improve Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs.

Feed additives have been suggested to improve animal growth performance through modulating the gut microbiota. The hypothesis of this study was that the combination of two organic acids would exert synergistic effects on the growth performance and gut microbiota of weaning pigs. To test this hypothesis, we followed 398 weaning pigs from two university experiment stations (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and University of Arkansas (UA)) to determine the effects of increasing levels (0%, 0.

ZnO Modulates Swine Gut Microbiota and Improves Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs When Combined with Peptide Cocktail.

Zinc has been very efficacious in reducing post-weaning diarrhea, whereas animal-derived peptides are suggested to improve the growth performance of weaned piglets. However, the combined effect of zinc and peptides on swine production and swine gut microbiota is still largely unknown. In this study, we followed 288 nursery pigs from the age of d30 to d60 to evaluate the growth performance and gut microbiota of weanling pigs subjected to different levels of a fish-porcine-microbial peptide cocktail (0.

Acridine orange as an alternative to optical density to study growth kinetics of Lactobacillus bulgaricus ATCC 7517.

In this study we assessed the use of acridine orange as an alternative to optical density to quantify the growth of Lactobacillus bulgaricus ATCC 7517. The growth of bacteria in Lactobacillus de Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) medium was measured by both acridine orange (AO) and optical density (OD) measurements for 24 h. The relationship between both methods was compared via correlation analysis.

Antimicrobial properties of three lactic acid bacterial cultures and their cell free supernatants against Listeria monocytogenes.

Control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) food products is a significant challenge and improved means for control are needed. In this study, the anti-listerial effects of three lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were investigated. Spot-on-lawn assays demonstrated the largest zones of inhibition against L.

Laser-induced inactivation of Plasmodium falciparum.

Background: Haemozoin crystals, produced by Plasmodium during its intra-erythrocytic asexual reproduction cycle, can generate UV light via the laser-induced, non-linear optical process of third harmonic generation (THG). In the current study the feasibility of using haemozoin, constitutively stored in the parasite's food vacuole, to kill the parasite by irradiation with a near IR laser was evaluated.

Methods: Cultured Plasmodium parasites at different stages of development were irradiated with a pulsed NIR laser and the viability of parasites at each stage was evaluated from their corresponding growth curves using the continuous culture method.

Intermediate outcomes of fresh talar osteochondral allografts for treatment of large osteochondral lesions of the talus.

Background: Large osteochondral defects of the talus present a treatment challenge. Fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation can be used for large lesions without the donor-site morbidity associated with other procedures such as autologous chondrocyte implantation or osteochondral autograft transfer. The goal of this study was to prospectively evaluate the intermediate outcomes of fresh osteochondral allografting for osteochondral lesions of the talus with use of validated outcome measures.

The combination of energy-dependent internal adaptation mechanisms and external factors enables Listeria monocytogenes to express a strong starvation survival response during multiple-nutrient starvation.

The goal of this study was to characterize the starvation survival response (SSR) of a wild-type Listeria monocytogenes 10403S and an isogenic DeltasigB mutant strain during multiple-nutrient starvation conditions over 28 days. This study examined the effects of inhibitors of protein synthesis, the proton motive force, substrate level phosphorylation, and oxidative phosphorylation on the SSR of L. monocytogenes 10403S and a DeltasigB mutant during multiple-nutrient starvation.

Ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter persists in raw retail chicken after the fluoroquinolone ban.

In 2005, the FDA withdrew approval for the use of fluoroquinolones in live poultry production. To assess any changes in countable numbers of ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter before and after the fluoroquinolone withdrawal, retail whole raw chicken carcasses (RTCC) purchased in Northwest Arkansas from 2004 to 2006 were sampled for this purpose. Using a previously published direct-plating method developed in our laboratory, we quantified trends of Campylobacter and ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter loads by direct plating whole chicken carcass rinses on Campylobacter agar (CA) or Campylobacter agar containing 8.

Characterization of new hybridoma clones producing monoclonal antibodies reactive against both live and heat-killed Listeria monocytogenes.

The objective of this study is to develop high affinity monoclonal antibody (MAb) probes recognizing all major serotypes of Listeria monocytogenes cells. From 500 candidate hybridoma clones, 2 new monoclonal antibody-producing hybridomas were selected and evaluated. MAbs 22D10 and 24F6 reacted strongly with live cells of most serotypes of L.

Differential killing activity of cetylpyridinium chloride with or without bacto neutralizing buffer quench against firmly adhered Salmonella gaminara and Shigella sonnei on cut lettuce stored at 4 degrees C.

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) activity was quenched with Bacto neutralizing buffer on inoculated cut iceberg lettuce. This protocol permitted comparison of the numbers of Salmonella Gaminara- or Shigella sonnei-inoculated cells on lettuce that survived 1 min of CPC treatment. Cut lettuce was inoculated with about 6 log of Salmonella or 9 log of Shigella and stored in Whirl-Pak bags at 4 degrees C for up to 4 days.

Concurrent quantitation of total campylobacter and total ciprofloxacin-resistant campylobacter loads in rinses from retail raw chicken carcasses from 2001 to 2003 by direct plating at 42 degrees C.

This is the first report on the use of a normally lethal dose of ciprofloxacin in a Campylobacter agar medium to kill all ciprofloxacin-sensitive Campylobacter spp. but allow the selective isolation and quantitation of naturally occurring presumptive ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter CFU in rinses from retail raw chicken carcasses (RTCC). Thermophilic-group total Campylobacter CFU and total ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter CFU (irrespective of species) were concurrently quantified in rinses from RTCC by direct plating of centrifuged pellets from 10 or 50 ml out of 400-ml rinse subsamples concurrently on Campylobacter agar and ciprofloxacin-containing Campylobacter agar at 42 degrees C (detection limit = 0.