Effects of melittin on production performance, antioxidant function, immune function, heat shock protein, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota in heat-stressed quails.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of melittin on production performance, antioxidant function, immune function, heat shock protein, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota of heat-stressed quails. A total of 120 (30-day-old) male quails were randomly divided into 3 groups. Each group consisted of 4 replicates with 10 birds per replicate.

Community composition of cecal microbiota in commercial yellow broilers with high and low feed efficiencies.

The cecal microbiota plays important roles in host food digestion and nutrient absorption, which may in part affect feed efficiency (FE). To investigate the composition and functional differences of cecal microbiota between high (n = 30) and low (n = 29) feed conversion ratio (FCR; metric for FE) groups, we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing and predicted the metagenome function using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved Species in yellow broilers. The results showed that the 2 groups had the same prominent microbes but with differing abundance.

Production of chimeras between the Chinese soft-shelled turtle and Peking duck through transfer of early blastoderm cells.

Chimeras are useful models for studies of developmental biology and cell differentiation. Intraspecies and interspecies germline chimeras have been produced in previous studies, but the feasibility of producing chimeras between animals of two different classes remains unclear. To address this issue, we attempted to produce chimeras between the Chinese soft-shelled turtle and the Peking duck by transferring stage X blastoderm cells to recipient embryos.

Transgenic quail production by microinjection of lentiviral vector into the early embryo blood vessels.

Several strategies have been used to generate transgenic birds. The most successful method so far has been the injection of lentiviral vectors into the subgerminal cavity of a newly laid egg. We report here a new, easy and effective way to produce transgenic quails through direct injection of a lentiviral vector, containing an enhanced-green fluorescent protein (eGFP) transgene, into the blood vessels of quail embryos at Hamburger-Hamilton stage 13-15 (HH13-15).

Transgenic chimera quail production by microinjecting lentiviral vector into the blood vessel of the early embryo.

In the past, several strategies have been used to generate transgenic birds. The most successful method has proven to be injection of lentiviral vector into the subgerminal cavity of the newly laid egg. In this study, we directly injected lentiviral vector into the blood vessel of HH13-15 quail embryos to produce transgenic chimeras.