Impact of particle size of cereals and soyabean meal on the intestinal development of weanling pigs and growth performance after an enteric challenge with F4-positive enterotoxigenic E. coli.

The objectives were to determine the interactive effect of particle size of soyabean meal (SBM) and whole wheat, barley and wheat bran (CER) on growth performance of weanling pigs after an enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli F4 challenge (Experiment 1) and on gastrointestinal (GIT) development immediately after weaning (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 consisted of 192 pigs (24 ± 3 days of age; 7.4 ± 1.

Microbial Abundances Retrieved from Sequencing data-automated NCBI Taxonomy (MARS): a pipeline to create relative microbial abundance data for the Microbiome Modelling Toolbox and utilizing homosynonyms for efficient mapping to resources.

Motivation: Computational approaches to the functional characterization of the microbiome, such as the Microbiome Modelling Toolbox, require precise information on microbial composition and relative abundances. However, challenges arise from homosynonyms-different names referring to the same taxon, which can hinder the mapping process and lead to missed species mapping when using microbial metabolic reconstruction resources, such as AGORA and APOLLO.

Results: We introduce the integrated MARS pipeline, a user-friendly Python-based solution that addresses these challenges.

Variability in feed intake the first days following weaning impacts gastrointestinal tract development, feeding patterns, and growth performance in nursery pigs.

The present study investigated the effects of voluntary feed intake (FI) the first days after weaning on gastrointestinal development and protein fermentation the first week after weaning and growth performance and feeding patterns during the nursery phase. A total of 144 mixed-sex weaned pigs (24 ± 2 d old; 7.2 ± 0.

APOLLO: A genome-scale metabolic reconstruction resource of 247,092 diverse human microbes spanning multiple continents, age groups, and body sites.

Computational modelling of microbiome metabolism has proved instrumental to catalyse our understanding of diet-host-microbiome-disease interactions through the interrogation of mechanistic, strain- and molecule-resolved metabolic models. We present APOLLO, a resource of 247,092 human microbial genome-scale metabolic reconstructions spanning 19 phyla and accounting for microbial genomes from 34 countries, all age groups, and five body sites. We explored the metabolic potential of the reconstructed strains and developed a machine learning classifier able to predict with high accuracy the taxonomic strain assignments.

Review: The amazing gain-to-feed ratio of newly weaned piglets: sign of efficiency or deficiency?

Shortly after weaning, piglets generally eat dry feed poorly; but nevertheless, a phenomenal gain-to-feed ratio is achieved as they gain about as much weight as they eat (150-200 g/d). The high gain-to-feed ratio, though, cannot be explained by their nutrient intake or nutrient repartitioning. Analyses based on tissue composition and bio-electrical impedance data showed that newly weaned piglets lose fat, maintain protein, and gain large amounts of water because of edema.