No abstract

Vaccination is an important mainstay of biosecurity and disease prevention in livestock farming. Vaccination failures represent an economic burden for the farmer. Polyphenol supplementation, known for its antioxidant properties, could help reduce oxidative damage and improve the success of vaccination. We evaluated the effect of a rumen-protected grape extract (RPGE) supplementation around vaccination on the immune response in young ruminants. 22 young female cattle (aged 6 to 8 months), born in the same dairy farm, were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group (BP-O, n = 11) was supplemented with a RPGE (Nor-Grape® BP-O, Nor-Feed, France), whilst a control group (CTL, n = 11) was not. All animals were vaccinated (D14) with an inactivated vaccine against PI-3 V and BRSV. A booster was given 3 weeks later (D35). Supplementation began 15 days before vaccination (D0) and ended 15 days after the last injection (D49). Antibody titers and total antioxidant status (TAS) were performed on blood samples drawn on D0, D35 and D56. Results show that the BP-O group tended to have a greater overall antibody response to BRSV and PI-3 V on D56 ( P < 0.10) and PI-3 V titer was significantly higher in the BP-O group on D35 ( p < 0.05). A greater total antioxidant capacity ( P <0.05 at D56) was also observed in the supplemented group. Results also showed a strong correlation between PI-3 V antibody titers and TAS ( p < 0.001). Thus, since supplemented animals became seropositive faster and long-term immunity appeared to be improved, this supplementation strategy could be of interest to enhance the immune response during a vaccination episode by reducing oxidative stress.

We investigated the effect of the Standardized Natural Citrus Extract (SNCE; Nor-Spice AB, Nor-Feed SAS, France) on the microbiota of the sows and on the weight gain of their piglets. Fifty sows were randomly divided into two groups: a control group (23 sows) with a standard diet and a SNCE group (27 sows) with a standard diet supplemented with 2,500 ppm of SNCE. Supplementation occurred 10 d before and 5 d after farrowing. Fecal samples from 16 sows (8 randomly selected sows of each dietary treatment) were collected for the fecal microbiota analysis 5 d after farrowing. The supplementation of SNCE increases the amount of cultivable Lactobacillus threefold in vitro. Microbial DNA was extracted from the fecal samples for sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The SNCE, which affected the microbiota as a discriminant analysis, was able to separate the microbial communities of the eight sows that received SNCE from the three control sows with 21 Operational Taxonomic Units (area under the ROC curve = 96%). SNCE also reduced the interval between farrowing and the first dejection of the sow and increased their feed intake (P-value &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, feeding the sows with SNCE improved the weight gain of the piglets in the first week of life. These results show that SNCE supplementation allows to enhance zootechnical performances of peripartum’ sows, possibly due to the modulation of the microbiota transmitted to the piglets.