Effect of Organic Acids on Salmonella Shedding and Colonization in Pigs on a Farm with High Salmonella Prevalence.

This study builds on the results of a previous study in which six commercial feed products based on organic acids were evaluated with respect to Salmonella contamination of piglets in an artificially challenged seeder model. In the present study, the efficacy of three of these commercial products was assessed for Salmonella reduction in fattening pigs on one closed farm with a natural high Salmonella prevalence. In each of four fattening compartments, one of the following feed treatments was evaluated during two consecutive fattening rounds: (i) butyric acid (active ingredients at 1.3 kg/ton of feed; supplement A1), (ii) a combination of short-chain organic acids (mixture of free acids and salts) and natural extracts (2.92 kg/ton; supplement A4), (iii) a 1:1 blend of two commercial products consisting of medium-chain fatty acids, lactic acid, and oregano oil (3.71 kg/ton; supplement A5+A6), and (iv) a control feed. On the farm, the Salmonella status of the fattening pigs was evaluated by taking fecal samples twice during the fattening period. At the slaughterhouse, samples were collected from the cecal contents and the ileocecal lymph nodes. Salmonella isolates were serotyped and characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. This farm had a particularly high number of pigs shedding Salmonella with a wide variety of sero- and pulsotypes. Only the feed blend based on the medium-chain fatty acids was able to significantly reduce Salmonella prevalence both on the farm and at the slaughterhouse. With this combined supplement, the Salmonella reduction in the feces at slaughter age, in cecal contents at slaughter, and the lymph nodes was 50, 36, and 67%, respectively, compared with the control animals. This promising finding calls for further investigation including cost-efficiency of this combined feed product and its effect on the animals.

Pirenzepine decreases basal and stimulated GH secretion in patients with type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus.

Growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion has been described in diabetes mellitus and seems to be involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes complications. As pirenzepine (PZ), a cholinergic muscarinic antagonist, is able to inhibit GH hypersecretion in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), we investigated whether PZ is also able to inhibit spontaneous and stimulated GH-release in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Ten non-obese well-controlled patients with NIDDM underwent in random order the following three double-blind one week treatments: placebo (PL), PZ at low dose (PL in the morning plus PZ 50 mg at 22 h) or high dose (PZ 50 mg at 8 h plus 100 mg at 22 h). Pirenzepine administration significantly (p < 0.05) decreased nocturnal GH release after both low and high dose (AUC, PL vs PZ: 107.3 +/- 26.5 vs 48.3 +/- 10.5 and 57.6 +/- 9.6 micrograms/L/h, respectively). The GH response to arginine infusion was significantly inhibited by PZ at high dose (AUC, 147.1 +/- 48.8 vs 444.7 +/- 194.3 micrograms/L/h, p < 0.01), but not at low dose. Glucose, insulin, glucagon and somatostatin responses to arginine infusion were not changed by pirenzepine treatment. In conclusion, the muscarinic blockade by PZ is able to inhibit the spontaneous and stimulated GH secretion also in NIDDM without affecting insulin secretion.