Background:Since the use of antibiotics in animal feed has become a critical concern worldwide due to severe threats to human health and environment, we are in need of finding alternatives to antibiotics in pig breeding, maintaining the health of pigs, and getting high-quality pork. As traditional Chinese herbs (TCH) are rich natural resources in China and show great benefits to human health we propose to transfer this abundant resource into animal production industry as additives.Methods: Three groups of Chinese herbs (groups A, B, and C) were used as feed additives in the diet for pigs. In total 32 pigs were arranged in four groups (groups A, B, C, and control group, NC), fed in the same facility, eight pigs (one group) in each colony, free drinking, for 120 days. The feed:gain ratio (F/G), meat quality, total protein, and amino acid concentration of muscle were checked in the experiments.Results: After 120 days of feeding, the feed:gain ratio (F/G) of pigs in groups A, B, and C was decreased 17.56%, 9.31%, and 13.86% compared with NC treatment, respectively. The diets supplemented with Chinese herbs improved meat quality, increased loin eye area (especially group A and C showed significant difference, P < .001), the total protein (increased ratio vs NC was A = 4.54%, B = 0.38% and C = 3.53%), amino acid concentration of muscle, increased the villus height:crypt depth ratio, and induced positive effects on serum biochemical parameters and immune function (serum TC and TG concentrations were significantly lower than those in the NC group, P < .05.). Conclusions:The use of Chinese herbal feed additives can reduce the cost of pig breeding and produce high-quality pock. The combination of these effects would contribute to better absorption ability of the intestinal tract and yield a better growth performance. K E Y W O R D SChinese herb feed additive, growth performance, meat quality, pigThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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This study aimed to investigate the effect of fermented spent mushroom substrate from Pleurotus eryngii (SMPE) supplementation on production performance, meat quality and rumen bacterial community structure of Hu sheep. 120 2-month-old Hu sheep with average body weight [(13.50 ± 3.10) kg] were selected and randomly divided into 4 groups with 3 replicates per group and 10 sheep per replicate. The control group (RL1) was fed a total mixed ration (TMR), and group RL2, RL3 and RL4 were fed the basal diets supplemented with 15%, 30% and 45% fermented SMPE, respectively. The pretest period lasted for 10 days and the test period lasted for 150 days. The results showed that: (1) Difference (p < 0.05) was observed in average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) between RL2 and RL4 groups. The eye muscle area (EMA) and grade rule (GR) values in RL2 and RL3 were significantly higher than those in RL1 and RL4 groups (p < 0.05). (2) The contents of threonine, valerine, leucine, lysine, histidine, essential amino acids, flavor amino acids, aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid and arginine of the longissimus dorsi muscle in RL2 and RL3 groups were significantly higher than RL1 and RL4 (p < 0.05). (3) A total of 1,202,445 valid sequences were obtained from rumen of Hu sheep fed different amounts of fermented feed, and the valid sequences were clustered into 9824 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). (4) α diversity analysis showed that the richness and diversity of rumen bacterial communities in Hu sheep in RL1, RL2, RL3 and RL4 groups were significantly higher than RL0 (raw materials of fermented SMPE) group (p < 0.05). β diversity analysis showed that the bacterial community structure was the most different between RL0 and RL3. (5) At the genus level, compared with RL1, the relative abundance of Christensenellaceae R-7 in RL3 group decreased significantly by 33.59%, the relative abundance of Prevotellaceae UCG001 in RL2, RL3 and RL4 decreased significantly by 50.41%, 62.24% and 49.17%, respectively, and the relative abundance of Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 in RL2 group increased significantly by 35.01% (p < 0.05). In summary, the addition of fermented SMPE to TMR can significantly improve the production performance, meat quality and rumen bacterial community diversity and abundance of Hu sheep.

This study was to investigate the effects of glucose and sucrose spraying on the microbial community on the surface of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa)，and thereby provide a theoretical foundation for the preparation of high-quality silage. To assess the changes in microbial profile, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing technology was employed. Results showed that a total of eighty-oneoperational taxonomic units (OTUs), encompassing four phyla, eight classes, fifteen orders, twenty-one families, and thirty-one genera, colonized the surface of Italian ryegrass and alfalfa. At the phylum level, both plant materials were abundant in Proteobacteria(Italian ryegrass 87.73% and alfalfa 95.28%) and Bacteroidetes (Itlian ryegrass 10.22% and alfalfa 2.23%). At the genus level, Italian ryegrass was enriched with Methylobacterium (22.83%), Pseudomonas (16.32%), Rhizobium (13.12%), and Sphingomonas (12.63%), whereas alfalfa mainly included Pseudomonas (23.14%), Brucella (17.24%), and Methylobacterium (15.10%). Sucrose spraying enriched Sphingomonas and Xanthomonas in Italian ryegrass, while glucose spraying increased the abundance of Rhizobium and Pedobacterin Italian ryegrass. In alfalfa, Duganella and Erwinia were enriched by sucrose spraying. Overall, glucose and sucrose spraying led to change microorganism alpha diversity and a significant LefSe difference. Furthermore, statistical variations in microorganisms were observed within seven days after spraying sucrose and glucose, and the changes varied across the grasses. Significance and Impact of Study: Microorganisms are very important for silage fermentation. This study reported the effects of spraying different sugars on the quantity and distribution of microorganisms on grass surface.