RESUMO
The poultry industry needs efficient antibiotic alternatives to prevent necrotic enteritis (NE) infections. Here, we evaluate the effects of probiotic and/or prebiotic dietary supplementation on performance, meat quality and carcass traits, using only an NE coinfection model, in broiler chickens. Three hundred and twenty-four healthy Ross 308 broiler chicks are allocated into six groups. Taking a 35 d feeding trial, the chicks are fed a basal diet with 0.0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.12, 0.5 + 0.12, and 0.2 g Kg-1 for the control (T1), Avilamycin (Maxus; T2), live probiotic (CloStat (Bacillus subtilis);T3), natural phytobiotic compounds (Sangrovit Extra (sanguinarine and protopine); T4), CloStat + Sangrovit Extra (T5), and spore probiotic strain (Gallipro Tect (Bacillus subtilis spores); T6) treatments, respectively. Occurring at 15 days-old, chicks are inoculated with Clostridium perfringens. The obtained results reveal that all feed additives improve the performance, feed efficiency, and survival rate, and reduces the intestinal lesions score compared with the control group. The T6 followed by T3 groups show a significant (p < 0.05) increase in some carcass traits, such as dressing, spleen, and thymus percentages compared with other treatments. Also, T5 and T6 have significantly recorded the lowest temperature and pHu values and the highest hardness and chewiness texture values compared to the other treated groups. To conclude, probiotics combined with prebiotic supplementation improves the growth, meat quality, carcass characterization and survival rate of NE-infected broiler chickens by modulating gut health conditions and decreasing lesion scores. Moreover, it could be useful as an ameliorated NE disease alternative to antibiotics in C. perfringens coinfected poultry.
RESUMO
This is the first report on a biphasic in vitro maturation (IVM) approach with a meiotic inhibitor to improve dromedary camel IVM. Spontaneous meiotic resumption poses a major setback for in vitro matured oocytes. The overall objective of this study was to improve in vitro maturation of dromedary camel oocytes using ROCK inhibitor (Y-27632) in a biphasic IVM to prevent spontaneous meiotic resumption. In the first experiment, we cultured immature cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs, n = 375) in a prematuration medium supplemented with ROCK inhibitor (RI) for 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, and 24 h before submission to normal in vitro maturation to complete 28 h. The control was cultured for 28 h in the absence of RI. In the first phase of experiment two, we cultured COCs (n = 480) in the presence or absence (control) of RI for 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, and 24 h, and conducted real-time relative quantitative PCR (qPCR) on selected mRNA transcripts. The same was done in the second phase, but qPCR was done after completion of normal IVM. Assessment of nuclear maturation showed that pre-IVM for 4 h yielded an increase in MII oocyte (54.67% vs. 26.6% of control; p < 0.05). As expected, the same group showed the highest degree (2) of cumulus expansion. In experiment 2, qPCR results showed significantly higher expression of ACTB and BCL2 in the RI group treated for 4 h when compared with the other groups. However, their relative quantification after biphasic IVM did not reveal any significant difference, except for the positive response of BCL2 and BAX/BCL2 ratio after 4 and 6 h biphasic IVM. In conclusion, RI prevents premature oocyte maturation and gave a significantly positive outcome during the 4 h treatment. This finding is a paradigm for future investigation on dromedary camel biphasic IVM and for improving the outcome of IVM in this species.
RESUMO
This study compared the efficiency of commercial egg yolk-free (AndroMed, OPTIXcell) and egg yolk-supplemented (Triladyl, Steridyl) Tris-based extenders for semen cryopreservation in seven adult dromedary camels. The camel-specific extender SHOTOR was used as control. The collected semen samples were evaluated and diluted with SHOTOR, Triladyl, Steridyl, AndroMed, or OPTIXcell. The diluted semen was gradually cooled and equilibrated for two hours before liquid nitrogen freezing. Semen was evaluated prior to freezing and after freeze-thawing cycles for motility, kinetics, vitality, abnormality, plasma membrane integrity, and DNA fragmentation using computer-assisted sperm analysis. In pre-freezing evaluation, progressive sperm motility was higher in SHOTOR-diluted samples (21.54 ± 1.83) than in samples diluted with Steridyl, OPTIXcell, or AndroMed (15.76 ± 1.80, 17.43 ± 1.10, and 13.27 ± 1.07, respectively). Moreover, Triladyl and SHOTOR resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) better sperm vitality and DNA integrity than all other diluents, but Triladyl resulted in a significantly (p < 0.05) better plasma membrane integrity (87.77 ± 0.31) than SHOTOR (85.48 ± 0.58). In the post-thawing evaluation, Triladyl led to significantly (p < 0.05) higher sperm motility (38.63 ± 0.81%; p < 0.05) when compared to SHOTOR, Steridyl or AndroMed (35.09 ± 1.341%, 34.4 ± 0.84%, and 31.99 ± 1.48%, respectively), with OPTIXcell being the least efficient (28.39 ± 0.86%). Progressive sperm motility was the highest when using Triladyl. Post-thawing curvilinear, straight line and average path sperm velocities were highest with Triladyl and lowest with AndroMed. Triladyl led to the highest linearity coefficient and straightness sperm coefficient, while SHOTOR to the highest DNA and plasma membrane integrity. OPTIXcell and AndroMed resulted in poor post-thawing sperm vitality, while Steridyl was less efficient than Triladyl. The highest rate of sperm abnormalities was recorded with OPTIXcell and the lowest with SHOTOR or Triladyl. In conclusion, SHOTOR, Triladyl, Steridyl, AndroMed, and OPTIXcell can all be used for camel semen cryopreservation; however, SHOTOR and Triladyl provided the best post-thawing sperm quality. Based on our findings, Triladyl is the best commercially available extender for dromedary camel semen cryopreservation to date.
