Research Note: Preliminary assessment of the impact of dietary yeast products on egg production and cecal microbial profiles of laying hens.

The objective of the current study was to conduct an initial comparison of commercial yeast products in layer hen diets on egg production parameters and the corresponding impact on the cecal microbiota. A short-term feeding study was conducted with 35 laying hens receiving either a control, or 1 of 4 different yeast fermentation products, Immunowall, Hilyses (both from ICC, São Paulo, Brazil), Citristim (ADM, Decatur, IL), and Maxi-Gen Plus (CBS Bio Platforms, Calgary, Canada) with 7 hens per treatment from 40 to 46 wk of age. At the end of the trial, hens were euthanized, the ceca removed and prepared for denatured gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) microbial compositional analyses. Although initial shell weight and shell thickness were similar among the treatment groups, hens fed Hilyses had lower shell weight and thickness at the end of the experiment. The most predominant DGGE bands with the strongest intensity were identified as Lactobacillus species and excised double bands were identified as Bacillus, Clostridium, or Lachnospiraceae. In this short-term feeding trial, the commercial yeast products tested had little effect on egg production and shell quality, and only moderately impacted the composition of mature layer hen cecal microbiota.

Incidence and duration of hepatitis B surface antigenemia after neonatal hepatitis B immunization.

After immunization with recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, 19 infants were tested serially for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg); 65% of infants had test results positive for HBsAg at least once, the incidence peaking 2 to 3 days from the time of immunization. The longest documented duration of antigenemia was 8 days; in all patients, HBsAg test results were negative by 18 days.

Making hospital advertisements more readable and more effective.

Hospitals and other health care organizations make continuing use of newspaper and magazine advertising as part of their marketing programs. However, many institutions have questioned the effectiveness of advertising because they have not achieved the results they had hoped for. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that many hospital advertisements violate the principles of good copywriting. Well written advertisements will draw larger readership, and should subsequently prove more effective in helping the institution achieve its communications objectives.