The use of nontherapeutic levels of antibiotics in swine production can select for antibiotic resistance in commensal and pathogenic bacteria in swine. As a result, retail pork products, as well as surface and groundwaters contaminated with swine waste, have been shown to be sources of human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, it is unclear whether the air within swine operation...

This research was conducted to compare the effects of two medicinal plants (peppermint and aloe vera) and antibiotic growth promoter on ileum microflora population and growth performance of broiler chickens. In this experiment, 375 one-day old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were used on a completely randomized design with 5 dietary treatments which were replicated 5 times with 15 birds per re...

Lactic acidosis is a major welfare issue affecting animal health and production systems such as dairy and feedlot beef. We used two bioassays to identify bioactive plants of Australia with the potential to prevent acidosis in ruminants. In the first bioassay, a potentially acidotic environment was induced by adding glucose to rumen fluid and pH and gas production were used to estimate the effec...

Selenium (Se) is an essential element for many organisms but also toxic at higher levels. The objective of this study was to identify accessions from the model species Arabidopsis thaliana that differ in Se tolerance and accumulation. Nineteen Arabidopsis accessions were grown from seed on agar medium with or without selenate (50 microM) or selenite (20 microM), followed by analysis of Se toler...

This study was carried out to investigate the preventive effects of galactoglucomannan (GGM), a homogeneous polysaccharide from Dendrobium huoshanense, on liver injury and fibrosis induced by sodium selenite. Sprague-Dawley rats injected subcutaneously with sodium selenite at the dosage of 3.28 mgkg(-1) b.wt. were set as the model groups. Rats treated with sodium selenite at the dosage of 3.28 ...

This work investigates the potential of Rubus ulmifolius, indigenous to a metal contaminated site--Esteiro de Estarreja--for phytoremediation purposes. The site has a long history of metal contamination. The accumulation of lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and nickel (Ni) in different sections--roots, stems and leaves - of the plant was assessed and compared to the levels of those metals in the soil and...