This study was conducted to examine the effect of active dry yeast (ADY) supplementation on lactation performance, ruminal fermentation patterns, and CH 4 emissions and to determine an optimal ADY dose. Sixty Holstein dairy cows in early lactation (52 ± 1.2 DIM) were used in a randomized complete design. Cows were blocked by parity (2.1 ± 0.2), milk production (35 ± 4.6 kg/d), and body weight (642 ± 53 kg) and assigned to 1 of 4 treatments. Cows were fed ADY at doses of 0, 10, 20, or 30 g/d per head for 91 d, with 84 d for adaptation and 7 d for sampling. Although dry matter intake was not affected by ADY supplementation, the yield of actual milk, 4% fat-corrected milk, milk fat yield, and feed efficiency increased quadratically with increasing ADY supplementation. Yields of milk protein and lactose increased linearly with increasing ADY doses, whereas milk urea nitrogen concentration and somatic cell count decreased quadratically. Ruminal pH and ammonia concentration were not affected by ADY supplementation, whereas ruminal concentration of total volatile fatty acid increased quadratically. Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, nonfiber carbohydrate, and crude protein increased quadratically with increasing ADY supplementation. Supplementation of ADY did not affect blood concentration of total protein, triglyceride, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase, whereas blood urea nitrogen, cholesterol, and nonesterified fatty acid concentrations decreased quadratically with increasing ADY supplementation. Methane production was not affected by ADY supplementation when expressed as grams per day or per kilogram of actual milk yield, dry matter intake, digested organic matter, and digested nonfiber carbohydrate, whereas a trend of linear and quadratic decrease of CH 4 production was observed when expressed as grams per kilogram of fat-corrected milk and digested neutral detergent fiber. In conclusion, feeding ADY to earlylactating cows improved lactation performance by increasing nutrient digestibility. The optimal ADY dose should be 20 g/d per head.

Background In treating short‐bowel syndrome (SBS), autonomy from parenteral nutrition (PN) relies upon intestinal adaptation, which can be augmented by glucagon‐like peptide‐2 (GLP‐2) analogues. In neonatal piglets with SBS, we compared intestinal adaptation following treatment with 2 GLP‐2 analogues: teduglutide (TED) and apraglutide (APRA) Methods Following 75% distal small‐intestinal resection, piglets were allocated to 4 treatment groups: saline (CON: n = 8), twice weekly APRA (5 mg/kg/dose; n = 8), and TED once daily (TED, 0.05 mg/kg/dose; n = 8) or twice daily (TEDBID, 0.05 mg/kg/dose; n = 7). Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies were undertaken, and on day 7, small‐intestinal length and weight were measured and jejunal tissue collected for histology. Results PK profiles were different between the 2 analogues. To achieve a comparable exposure to APRA, TED requires twice daily injection (TEDBID). Compared with CON, APRA and TEDBID increased small‐bowel length (cm) (CON: 141, APRA: 166, TED: 153, TEDBID: 165; P = .004), whereas APRA increased small‐bowel weight (g) (CON: 26, APRA: 33, TED: 28, TEDBID: 31; P = .007) and villus height (mm) (CON: 0.59, APRA: 0.90, TED: 0.58, TEDBID: 0.74; P < .001). Conclusion APRA injected only twice during the 7 consecutive days demonstrated a superior intestinotrophic effect compared with TED injected once daily. Even at more comparable drug exposure, when TED was injected twice a day, APRA showed superior trophic activity at the mucosal level. This is highly relevant for the treatment of pediatric SBS, given the markedly lower dose frequency by subcutaneous injection of APRA.

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Background: Infants and children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) are presumed to be at risk of gut microbial dysbiosis with potential sequelae of bacterial overgrowth that include sepsis, D-lactic acidosis, mucosal inflammation, and malabsorption. In neonatal piglets with SBS, we compared intestinal microbial composition, shortchain fatty acids (SCFAs), and adaptation given probiotic (PRO) treatment (Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp) vs oral metronidazole (MET).Methods: Following 75% distal small intestinal resection, piglets were allocated to PRO (500 mg twice a day, n = 7), MET (15 mg/kg twice a day, n = 8), and placebo (PLA) (500 mg twice a day, n = 8). After 10 days of parenteral and enteral nutrition, 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing (colon tissue and stool) was undertaken and SCFA analysis (stool and colon effluent) was performed using gas chromatography.Results: In colon, Shannon diversity was higher for PRO compared with MET and PLA (P = 0.002). PRO and PLA increased abundance of Bacteroidetes species (eg, Bacteroides fragilis) compared with MET (P < 0.001). PRO, compared with PLA, increased abundance of Firmicutes species (eg, Lactobacillus fermentum) (P < 0.001).MET increased abundance of Proteobacteria members, predominately Enterobacteriaceae, compared with PRO (P = 0.004). In stool, microbial findings were similar and SCFA (butyrate) concentrations were highest for PRO (P = 0.003) compared with MET. Conclusion:In pediatric SBS, the empiric use of oral antibiotics, such as MET, is common for presumed clinical consequences of microbial dysbiosis. In this study of SBS piglets, that approach was associated with decreased microbial diversity and increased abundance of potentially inflammatory Proteobacteria. In contrast, a PRO treatment using Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp increased both diversity and SCFAs.

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