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Metabolic Effects of Animal Growth Promoters
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Metabolic Effects of Animal Growth Promoters

A topical collection in Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This collection belongs to the section "Animal Metabolism".

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Editor

Prof. Dr. Chi Chen

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Section Editor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
Interests: animal nutrition; metabolomics; microbial metabolism; nutrient metabolism; nutritional biochemistry; xenobiotic metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

Robust and efficient metabolism is the foundation of animal growth and production, serving as a determining factor of feed efficiency. Diverse approaches have been adopted in the livestock industry to enhance feed efficiency, targeting either feed or animal. Common targets of growth promotion in feed formulation are energy density, nutrient profile, and digestibility, while the targets in animal are numerous, including immune response, microbial metabolism, redox balance, and muscle growth. All these approaches can affect metabolism either directly or indirectly. Among these approaches, antimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs) were widely used in livestock production until very recently, but this practice has been largely prohibited due to concerns regarding resistant microbes and food safety. Therefore, extensive effort has been dedicated to the search for alternatives to AGPs, with the goal of replicating the metabolic effects of AGPs. This Topic Collection aims to explore the influences of growth promoters on these metabolic events, including metabolites, enzymes, genes and regulators, and their contributions to animal growth and health. Because diverse metabolic events occur in the complex and multi-step process of converting the nutrients in feed to the body mass of production animals, coverage of this Topic Collection includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Metabolic fates of growth promoters;
  • Effects of growth promoters on digestion, absorption, distribution and metabolism of nutrients;
  • Effects of growth promoters on microbial metabolism;
  • Effects of growth promoters on nutrient metabolism and redox balance.

Dr. Chi Chen
Collection Editor

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Keywords

  • Animal metabolism
  • Antibiotic growth promotor
  • Metabolite markers
  • Metabolomics
  • Microbiota
  • Nutrient metabolism

Published Papers (3 papers)

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2022

Jump to: 2021

15 pages, 2292 KiB  
Article
Identification of Independent and Shared Metabolic Responses to High-Fiber and Antibiotic Treatments in Fecal Metabolome of Grow–Finish Pigs
by Yuan-Tai Hung, Yajian Song, Qiong Hu, Richard J. Faris, Juanjuan Guo, Yiwei Ma, Milena Saqui-Salces, Pedro E. Urriola, Gerald C. Shurson and Chi Chen
Metabolites 2022, 12(8), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12080686 - 26 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1780
Abstract
Feeding high-fiber (HF) coproducts to grow–finish pigs as a cost-saving practice could compromise growth performance, while the inclusion of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) may improve it. The hindgut is a shared site of actions between fiber and AGPs. However, whether the metabolic interactions [...] Read more.
Feeding high-fiber (HF) coproducts to grow–finish pigs as a cost-saving practice could compromise growth performance, while the inclusion of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) may improve it. The hindgut is a shared site of actions between fiber and AGPs. However, whether the metabolic interactions between them could occur in the digestive tract of pigs and then become detectable in feces have not been well-examined. In this study, wheat middling (WM), a HF coproduct, and bacitracin, a peptide antibiotic (AB), were fed to 128 grow–finish pigs for 98 days following a 2 × 2 factorial design, including antibiotic-free (AF) + low fiber (LF); AF + HF; AB + LF, and AB + HF, for growth and metabolic responses. The growth performance of the pigs was compromised by HF feedings but not by AB. A metabolomic analysis of fecal samples collected on day 28 of feeding showed that WM elicited comprehensive metabolic changes, especially in amino acids, fatty acids, and their microbial metabolites, while bacitracin caused selective metabolic changes, including in secondary bile acids. Limited metabolic interactions occurred between fiber and AB treatments. Moreover, the correlations between individual fecal metabolites and growth support the usage of fecal metabolome as a source of biomarkers for monitoring and predicting the metabolic performance of grow–finish pigs. Full article
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17 pages, 663 KiB  
Article
Effects of a Polyherbal Dietary Additive on Performance, Dietary Energetics, Carcass Traits, and Blood Metabolites of Finishing Lambs
by Griselda Dorantes-Iturbide, José Felipe Orzuna-Orzuna, Alejandro Lara-Bueno, Luis Alberto Miranda-Romero, Germán David Mendoza-Martínez and Pedro Abel Hernández-García
Metabolites 2022, 12(5), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12050413 - 03 May 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2033
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of a polyherbal additive (PA) containing hydrolyzable tannins, flavonoids, and essential oils on productive performance, dietary energetics, carcass and meat characteristics, and blood metabolites of lambs in their finishing phase. [...] Read more.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of a polyherbal additive (PA) containing hydrolyzable tannins, flavonoids, and essential oils on productive performance, dietary energetics, carcass and meat characteristics, and blood metabolites of lambs in their finishing phase. Twenty-eight Pelibuey × Katahdin lambs (20.52 ± 0.88 kg body weight (BW)) were housed in individual pens and assigned to four treatments (n = 7) with different doses of PA: 0 (CON), 1 (PA1), 2 (PA2), and 3 (PA3) g of PA kg−1 of DM for 56 days. Compared to the CON, lambs in PA1 treatment had higher average daily gain (p = 0.03), higher dietary energy utilization (p = 0.01), greater backfat thickness (p = 0.02), greater Longissimus dorsi muscle area (p = 0.01), and better feed conversion ratio (p = 0.02). PA supplementation did not affect (p > 0.05) dry matter intake, carcass yield, biometric measures, and meat chemical composition. All hematological and most of the blood biochemical parameters were similar in lambs of all treatments (p > 0.05). However, compared to the CON, lambs assigned to the PA3 treatment had lower serum urea concentration (p = 0.05) and higher serum albumin concentration (p = 0.03). In conclusion, low doses of PA could be used as a growth promoter in finishing lambs without affecting dry matter intake, carcass yield, meat chemical composition, and health status of the lambs. However, more in vivo research is needed to better understand the impact of bioactive compounds from PA used on productivity, metabolism, and health status of finishing lambs. Full article
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2021

Jump to: 2022

16 pages, 904 KiB  
Article
Plasma Metabolites, Productive Performance and Rumen Volatile Fatty Acid Profiles of Northern Australian Bos indicus Steers Supplemented with Desmanthus and Lucerne
by Bénédicte Suybeng, Edward Charmley, Christopher P. Gardiner, Bunmi S. Malau-Aduli and Aduli E. O. Malau-Aduli
Metabolites 2021, 11(6), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo11060356 - 02 Jun 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3202
Abstract
The hypothesis tested was that tropical steers supplemented with the Desmanthus legume and lucerne, a widely characterized temperate legume of high nutritive value, would elicit similar responses in plasma metabolite profiles, productive performance, nitrogen retention, and volatile fatty acids (VFA). The tannin-binding compound, [...] Read more.
The hypothesis tested was that tropical steers supplemented with the Desmanthus legume and lucerne, a widely characterized temperate legume of high nutritive value, would elicit similar responses in plasma metabolite profiles, productive performance, nitrogen retention, and volatile fatty acids (VFA). The tannin-binding compound, polyethylene glycol-4000 (PEG), was added to the diets (160 g/kg Desmanthus dry matter) with the objective of further exploring nitrogen (N) utilization in the animals supplemented with Desmanthus relative to lucerne. From February to June 2020, sixteen yearling Brangus steers (average liveweight of 232 ± 6 kg) were fed a background diet of Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay for 28 days, before introducing three Desmanthus cultivars (Desmanthus virgatus cv. JCU2, D. bicornutus cv. JCU4, D. leptophyllus cv. JCU7) and lucerne (Medicago sativa) at 30% dry matter intake (DMI). Relative to the backgrounding period, all supplemented steers exhibited similar growth performance. Steers supplemented with Desmanthus recorded a lower DMI and animal growth performance, but higher fecal N concentration than animals supplemented with lucerne. Among the three Desmanthus cultivars, there were no significant differences in N concentrations, VFA, and plasma metabolite profiles. The addition of PEG induced higher rumen iso-acid concentrations and fecal N excretion. However, feeding Desmanthus spp. to tropical Bos indicus steers could be a valuable means of increasing N utilization, which is attributable to the presence of tannins, and, consequently, improve animal productive performance. Since supplementation with lucerne resulted in higher liveweight, daily liveweight gains, and overall animal performance than supplementing with Desmanthus, the tested hypothesis that both supplements will elicit similar animal performance does not hold and must be rejected. Further in vivo investigation is needed to better understand the impact of tannins in Desmanthus on N utilization. Full article
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