Project description:Subclinical necrotic enteritis (SNE) is one of the serious threats to the poultry industry. Probiotics have been proven to exert the beneficial effects in controlling SNE. However, the exact mechanisms of probiotics have not been fully elucidated, and few researchs have focused on their impact on miRNAs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the miRNA expression profles in the ileum of broiler chickens during probiotic supplement treatment for SNE. 180 newly hatched male chicks were randomly allocated in three groups, including negative control group(NC), SNE infection group(PC) and Bacillus licheniformis H2 pre-treatment group (BL). Illumina high-throughput sequencing was conducted to identify the miRNA expression of three groups. The results showed that 628 miRNAs, including 582 known miRNAs and 46 novel miRNAs, were detected in libraries. The target genes of 57 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted and annotated, which were found to partly enrich in pathways related to immunity and inflammation such as tumor necrosis factor receptor binding, immune response-regulating signaling pathway, activation of NF-kappaB-inducing kinase activity, interleukin-15 production, Toll-like receptor 2 signaling pathway and MAP kinase tyrosine/serine/threonine phosphatase activity. Our results provided comprehensive miRNA expression profles of these three different treatment groups. And these findings suggested that H2 could exert beneficial effects in controlling SNE may through immune and inflammatory response associated to altered miRNA expression.
Project description:Proteomic analysis was performed on the proximal tibia head from healhty and BCO-affected broiler (meat-type) chickens using Bruker Daltonics amaZon series Mass Spectrometer. This analysis was undertaken to identify key protein signature involved in BCO, a common cause of lameness.
Project description:We recently performed global gene expression in the breast muscles of modern broiler and foundation line chickens. In this study, we have peformed miRNA expression analyses in the same tissues to identify muscle specific miRNAs that could be regulatory factors for muscle growth and feed efficiency in chickens.
Project description:Next-Generation-Sequencing (NGS) technologies have led to important improvement in the detection of new or unrecognized infective agents, related to infectious diseases. In this context, NGS high-throughput technology can be used to achieve a comprehensive and unbiased sequencing of the nucleic acids present in a clinical sample (i.e. tissues). Metagenomic shotgun sequencing has emerged as powerful high-throughput approaches to analyze and survey microbial composition in the field of infectious diseases. By directly sequencing millions of nucleic acid molecules in a sample and matching the sequences to those available in databases, pathogens of an infectious disease can be inferred. Despite the large amount of metagenomic shotgun data produced, there is a lack of a comprehensive and easy-use pipeline for data analysis that avoid annoying and complicated bioinformatics steps. Here we present HOME-BIO, a modular and exhaustive pipeline for analysis of biological entity estimation, specific designed for shotgun sequenced clinical samples. HOME-BIO analysis provides comprehensive taxonomy classification by querying different source database and carry out main steps in metagenomic investigation. HOME-BIO is a powerful tool in the hand of biologist without computational experience, which are focused on metagenomic analysis. Its easy-to-use intrinsic characteristic allows users to simply import raw sequenced reads file and obtain taxonomy profile of their samples.
Project description:We report the hepatic response of broiler chickens to an increase in stocking density. Here we compare gene expression profiles of liver cells via RNA-seq of broiler chicken raised under a high stocking density to broiler chickens raised under a lower stocking density with the objective of this study being to identify biomarkers of stress before the clinical and economic impacts are observed. We found that increasing stocking density seems to have a unique impact on hepatic gene expression prior to eliciting common clinical signs associated with stress. The cellular functions that are most affected appear to be those involved in steroidogenesis and cell movement/migration as identified by RNA-seq analysis of the liver transcriptome. These results could provide a baseline of information that future research to identify genes or molecules that could aid in the detection of negative effects of stressors such as stocking density prior to negative clinical and economic signs presenting themselves.
Project description:Wooden Breast (WB) is a novel myopathy affecting the pectoralis major muscle of modern broiler chickens. We selected pectoralis fillet samples, a normal(healthy) fillet and a WB fillet.
Project description:Domestic broiler chickens rapidly accumulate adipose tissue due to intensive genetic selection for rapid growth and are naturally hyperglycemic and insulin resistant, making them an attractive addition to the suite of rodent models used for studies of obesity and type 2 diabetes in humans. Furthermore, chicken adipose tissue is considered as poorly sensitive to insulin and lipolysis is under glucagon control. Excessive fat accumulation is also an economic and environmental concern for the broiler industry due to the loss of feed efficiency and excessive nitrogen wasting, as well as a negative trait for consumers who are increasingly conscious of dietary fat intake. Understanding the control of avian adipose tissue metabolism would both enhance the utility of chicken as a model organism for human obesity and insulin resistance and highlight new approaches to reduce fat deposition in commercial chickens. In the present study we simultaneously characterized the effects of a short term (5 hours) fast or neutralization of insulin action (5 hours) on adipose tissue of young (16-17 day-old), fed commercial broiler chickens.
Project description:The gut of chicken is mostly colonised with Campylobacter jejuni and with 100 fold less C. coli. The competitive ability of C. coli OR12 over C. jejuni OR1 has been examined in experimental broiler chickens following the observation that C. coli replaced an established C. jejuni intestinal colonisation within commercial chicken flocks reared outdoors (El-Shibiny, A., Connerton, P.L., Connerton, I.F., 2005. Enumeration and diversity of campylobacters and bacteriophages isolated during the rearing cycles of free-range and organic chickens. Applied Environmental Microbiology. 71, 1259-1266).