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Simple Summary: The rapid growth of the poultry industry has been accompanied by several challenges, of which excessive fat deposition is a major disadvantage. In this study, we found that a high dietary iron (500 mg/kg) intake reduced fat deposition and could reverse the imbalance of gut microbiota induced by a high-fat diet. These findings revealed the role of iron in regulating fat deposition and the gut microbiota of silky fowl black-bone chickens. Our study suggests that iron may regulate fat deposition by influencing the gut microbiota of chickens and provides a potential avenue to prevent excessive fat deposition in chickens by adding iron to the diet. To meet the demand of consumers for chicken products, poultry breeders have made improvements to chickens. However, this has led to a new problem in the modern poultry industry, namely excessive fat deposition. This study aims to understand the effects of dietary iron supplementation on fat deposition and gut microbiota in chickens. In this study, we investigated the effects of iron on the growth performance, fat deposition, and gut microbiota of silky fowl black-bone chickens. A total of 75 7-week-old silky fowl black-bone chickens were randomly divided into three groups (five replicates per group, five chickens per replicate) and fed them for 28 days using a growing diet (control group), a growing diet + 10% tallow (high-fat diet group, HFD group), and a growing diet + 10% tallow + 500 mg/kg iron (HFDFe500 group), respectively. We detected the effects of iron on the growth performance, fat deposition, and gut microbiota of silky fowl black-bone chickens using the growth performance index test, oil red O staining, and HE staining, and found that the high-fat diet significantly increased liver and serum fat deposition and liver injury, while the addition of iron to the diet could reduce the fat deposition caused by the high-fat diet and alleviate liver injury. In addition, 16S rDNA sequencing was used to compare the relative abundance of gut microbiota in the cecal contents in different feeding groups. The results showed that the high-fat diet could induce gut microbiota imbalance in chickens, while the high-iron diet reversed the gut microbiota imbalance. PICRUSt functional prediction analysis showed that dietary iron supplementation affected amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, cofactors, and vitamin metabolism pathways. In addition, correlation analysis showed that TG was significantly associated with Firmicutes and Actinobacteriota (p < 0.05). Overall, these results revealed high dietary iron (500 mg/kg) could reduce fat deposition and affect the gut microbiota of silky fowl black-bone chickens, suggesting that iron may regulate fat deposition by influencing the gut microbiota of chickens and provides a potential avenue that prevents excessive fat deposition in chickens by adding iron to the diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance the performance of intelligent image recognition, this study optimizes the image recognition model through lightweight convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and cloud computing technology. The study begins by introducing the relevant theories and models of edge computing (EC) and lightweight CNNs models. Next, this study focuses on optimizing traditional image recognition models. Finally, the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed model are experimentally validated. The experimental results indicate that, when recognizing 1000 images, the average recognition times per image on cloud servers and edge servers are 13.33 ms and 50.11 ms, respectively. Despite the faster speed of cloud servers, the performance of edge servers can be improved by stacking servers. When the number of edge servers reaches 4, their recognition speed surpasses that of the cloud server model. Additionally, comparing the latency and processing time between EC and cloud computing architectures, it is observed that, with an increase in the number of processed images, the average processing time per image in the EC architecture remains relatively stable and consistent. In contrast, the average processing time gradually increases in the cloud computing architecture. This indicates a significant impact of the number of images on the processing rate of the cloud computing architecture. Therefore, as the time gap in processing between cloud computing and EC increases, the advantages of the EC architecture become more apparent. This study's significance lies in advancing the development of deep learning technology and providing possibilities for its widespread practical application. The contribution of this study lies in promoting the development of EC and lightweight neural network models, offering valuable references and guidance for practical applications in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of high-throughput sequencing, circular RNA has come into people's vision and attracted more and more attention. Many studies have found that circular RNA plays an important role in a variety of biological processes and the occurrence and development of diseases. According to the previous sequencing results, circRNA_3238 was differentially expressed in ALV-J infected group and the non-infected group was selected for subsequent verification and analysis. We found that circRNA_3238 is a stable, circular transcript, which mainly exists in the cytoplasm. And it is widely expressed in various tissues of chickens, and highly expressed in lung, lymph, and bursa of fabricius. Bioinformatics results show that circRNA_3238 and the predicted target genes enriched MAPK signaling pathway, Notch signaling pathway, and other pathways related to disease or immune, revealing circRNA_3238 may indirectly regulate the process of ALV-J infection by regulating target genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a new non-coding RNA with a highly conserved and stable covalently closed loop structure, and it plays an important role in a variety of biological processes and the occurrence of diseases. Based on the sequencing results, circRNA_3079 had the most significant difference between the infected group and normal group, up to about 8 times. It has attracted our attention and was selected for further verification and analysis. Though the characteristics analysis of circRNA_3079 in chicken, we found circRNA_3079 is a stable, circular transcript, which mainly exists in the cytoplasm. And it is widely expressed in various tissues of chickens, and highly expressed in lung, spleen, lymph and bursa of fabricius. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that circRNA_3079 and the predicted target genes are enriched in many pathways related to immunity or tumors, such as p53 signaling pathway, Jak−STAT signaling pathway and NOD−like receptor signaling pathway, which revealed that circRNA_3079 may indirectly regulate the ALV-J infection process through the regulation of target genes. CircRNA_3079 is an abundant and stable circular RNA expressed in different tissues and cells in chicken. The circularization of circRNA_3079 does not depend on the reverse complementary repetitive sequence of the flanking sequence. CircRNA_3079 may indirectly regulate the ALV-J infection process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]