In the dynamic world of animal production, many challenges arise in disease control, animal welfare and the need to meet antibiotic-free demands. Emerging diseases have a significant impact on the poultry industry. Managing gut microbiota is an important determinant of poultry health and performance. Introducing precision glycans as feed additives adds another dimension to this complex environment. The glycans play pivotal roles in supporting gut health and immunological processes and are likely to limit antibiotic usage while enhancing intestinal well-being and overall poultry performance. This study explores precision glycan product as a feed additive supplemented at a continuous dose of 900 g per tonne of feed, in a free-range production system on a large commercial farm. Forty thousand 17-week-old pullets were randomly allocated to one of two separated sections of the production shed, with individual silos and egg-collecting belts. The flock performance, gut microbiota and its functionality were analysed throughout the laying cycle until 72 weeks of age. The results demonstrated that introducing precision glycans improved a range of performance indicators, including reduced cumulative mortality, especially during a major smothering event, where the birds pile up until they suffocate. There was also significantly increased hen-housed egg production, reduced gut dysbiosis score and undigested feed, increased number of goblet cells and improved feed conversion ratio. Additionally, microbiota analysis revealed significant changes in the composition of the gizzard, ileum content, ileum mucosa, and caecal and cloacal regions. Overall, the findings suggest that precision glycans have the potential to enhance poultry egg production in challenging farming environments.
Pasture production is vital in cattle farming as it provides animals with food and nutrients. Australia, as a significant global beef producer, has been experiencing pasture dieback, a syndrome of deteriorating grassland that results in the loss of grass and the expansion of weeds. Despite two decades of research and many remediation attempts, there has yet to be a breakthrough in understanding the causes or mechanisms involved. Suggested causes of this phenomenon include soil and plant microbial pathogens, insect infestation, extreme heat stress, radiation, and others. Plants produce a range of phytomolecules with antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, growth-promoting, and immunostimulant effects to protect themselves from a range of environmental stresses. These products are currently used more in human and veterinary health than in agronomy. In this study, we applied a phytogenic product containing citric acid, carvacrol, and cinnamaldehyde, to investigate its ability to alleviate pasture dieback. The phytogenic liquid-based solution was sprayed twice, one week apart, at 5.4 L per hectare. The soil microbial community was investigated longitudinally to determine long-term effects, and pasture productivity and plant morphometric improvements were explored. The phytogenic liquid significantly improved post-drought recovery of alpha diversity and altered temporal and spatial change in the community. The phytogenic liquid reduced biomarker genera associated with poor and polluted soils and significantly promoted plant and soil beneficial bacteria associated with plant rhizosphere and a range of soil benefits. Phytogenic liquid application produced plant morphology improvements and a consistent enhancement of pasture productivity extending beyond 18 months post-application. Our data show that phytogenic products used in the livestock market as an alternative to antibiotics may also have a beneficial role in agriculture, especially in the light of climate change-related soil maintenance and remediation.
Pasture dieback is a rapidly expanding decaying pasture syndrome that affects millions of hectares of agricultural land in Queensland, Australia, making it useless for the cattle industry and decimating farmers' income and welfare. Since the syndrome was first identified in the early 1990s, farmers and agronomists have tried various methods for pasture recovery, including slashing, burning, ploughing and resowing grass, fertilising, destocking, and overstocking. In most cases, after a minimal initial improvement, the grass reverts to dieback within a few weeks. Here, we present an application of potassium humate, a well-known plant growth stimulator, as a possible long-term recovery option. Humate was applied once at the rate of 12 ml per m2. Humate application did not alter the alpha or beta diversity of soil bacterial communities, nor did it change the mineral profile in the soil. However, humate application altered soil microbiota-mineral temporal interactions and introduced subtle changes in the microbial community that could assist pasture recovery. A single humate application increased paddock plant biomass significantly up to 20 weeks post-application. Eleven months after the single application, the paddock was grazed to the ground by the cattle just before the rainfall season. After pasture regrowth, the humate-treated plots significantly improved root morphometric indicators for both grass and dicots and increased the ratio of grass/weeds by 27.6% compared to the water-treated control. While this treatment will not resolve the dieback syndrome, our results invite more research to optimise the use of humate for maximum economic benefit in paddock use under pasture dieback syndrome conditions.
Pathogen control is a critical issue in the layer industry. Plant-based natural products are firmly replacing the undesirable use of antibiotics in animal production. The poultry industry embraced the opportunity to distance itself from the negative public perception of antibiotic use. In this study, we investigated the effects of a phytogenic product comprising of menthol, carvacrol and carvone on ileum gene expression profile in layers after 16 weeks of continual supplementation. Phytogen supplementation increased endocytosis and autophagy while showing significant predicted cardiovascular protective effects. Statistical comparison with over 100,000 manually curated and comparably reanalysed public datasets suggests that the phytogen effects are highly significantly comparable with transcriptomic effects of clinical antibiotics doxycycline and geldanamycin, and that phytogen can reverse transcriptomic effects of a range of viral diseases and malaria. Our data confirmed the hypothesis that similarly to the original essential oil type antimicrobial constituents of phytogenic products, there may be a range of benefits unrelated to their critical antimicrobial action, contributing to improved bird welfare.
