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Production of pimpled or sandpaper-shelled eggs (SE) is a major problem in aged hens. Probiotics can improve eggshell quality; however, the relationship between SE production and gut bacteria remains unclear. Here, 1200 450-d-old Hy-line hens were assigned to four groups (300 hens each), with the control group fed basal diet and treatment groups fed basal diet plus 500, 1000, and 1500 mg/kg of Clostridium butyricum and Bacillus subtilis, respectively. After 4 weeks, probiotics significantly decreased the SE rate from 42.51% to 28.02%. To address why probiotics reduced SE rate, the hens that only produced normal eggs (NE) or SE based on a 2-week assessment were assigned to three groups (NE, SE, and SEP groups; 10 hens each), with the NE and SE groups fed a basal diet and SEP group fed a basal diet plus 1000 mg/kg probiotics. After 4 weeks, ileal tissues from eight birds/group were collected for histomorphological and gene expression analyses, and the ileal content was collected from five birds/group for 16S rDNA sequencing analysis. The data showed that probiotics significantly increased the villus length and ratio of villus length to crypt depth. Quantitative PCR analysis indicated that there were no significant differences in the expression of genes related to tight junctions, nutrient transport, and calcium absorption among the groups (except TRPV6, P

Nutrition and energy are essential for poultry growth and production performance. Fasting and refeeding have been widely used to study the effects of nutrition, energy, and related mechanisms in chicken. Previous studies have shown that geese have a strong capacity for fat synthesis and storage; thus, changes in the goose liver transcriptome may be different from those in chicken assessed with a model of fasting and refeeding. However, the responses of the goose liver transcriptome to fasting and refeeding have not yet been addressed. In this study, 36 70-day-old Si Ji geese with similar body weight were randomly assigned to three groups: control (ad libitum feeding), fasting (fasted for 24 h), and refeeding (fast for 24 h followed by 2-h feeding) groups. After treatment, eight geese per group were sacrificed for sample collection. Liver samples from four geese in each group were subjected to transcriptome analysis, followed by validation of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction with the remaining samples. As a result, 155 DEGs (73 up-regulated) were identified between the control and fasting groups, and 651 DEGs (321 up-regulated) were identified between the fasting and refeeding groups. The enrichment analyses of Gene Ontology terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways showed that fasting mainly influenced material metabolism in the liver, especially lipid metabolism; in contrast, refeeding affected not only lipid metabolism but also glucose and amino acid metabolism. In addition, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway may play an important role in lipid metabolism. In conclusion, fasting and refeeding have a strong effect on lipid metabolism in the goose liver; specifically, fasting promotes fatty acid oxidation and inhibits fatty acid synthesis, and refeeding has the opposite effect. The model of fasting and refeeding is suitable for goose nutrition studies.

Communication between tissues and organs plays an important role in the maintenance of normal physiological functions as well as the occurrence and development of diseases. Communication molecules act as a bridge for interactions between tissues and organs, playing not only a local role in the tissues and organs where they are secreted but also in exerting systemic effects on the whole body via circulation. In this study, blood microRNA-omics analysis of overfed vs. normally fed (control) Landes geese revealed that the content of each of the 21 microRNAs (miRNAs) in the blood of overfed geese was significantly higher than that in the blood of control geese. These miRNAs may have systematic effects in the development of goose fatty liver as well as being candidate markers for the diagnosis of goose fatty liver. We determined the expression of miR-143, miR-455-5p, miR-222a-5p, miR-184, miR-1662, and miR-129-5p using quantitative PCR in goose fatty liver vs. that in normal liver. The expression of these miRNAs, except miR-129-5p, in goose fatty liver was also significantly higher than that in normal liver (P