Poultry health management plays a significant role in ensuring food safety and economic stability in Bangladesh. Field veterinarians are key contributors to poultry healthcare, yet their activities, challenges and impact remain underexplored. This study examined the roles and responsibilities of both government and private field veterinarians from across the national poultry industry, focusing on veterinary care, disease prevention, and biosecurity implementation within the broader context of One Health. We examined recruitment processes, facilities and challenges encountered by these veterinarians and how they think these factors impact the delivery of veterinary services to poultry farmers. This qualitative study was conducted between June 2021 and July 2023 with 62 field veterinarians from across Bangladesh completing semi-structured interviews. MAXQDA software was used for the analysis of interview transcripts, generation of inductive codes and identification of emerging themes. Inductive analysis revealed a recurring pattern across interviews indicating that employer priorities shape veterinarians' responsibilities in poultry health. This influence can be explained by eight interrelated themes that emerged from the interviews. Findings highlighted field veterinarians' contribution to disease prevention, vaccination, biosecurity enforcement, antimicrobial usage and farmer education. Challenges such as workforce and resource limitations, inadequate farmer compliance, and the need for continuous professional development were described as hindering effective service delivery. Moreover, the veterinarians indicated that variations in recruitment processes, job benefits and workplace conditions significantly influence their ability to deliver optimal poultry health services. We conclude that there is a need for policy reforms to better facilitate delivery and align poultry veterinary services targeting poultry disease prevention with public health objectives and the One Health approach.
Miyazaki Prefecture is one of Japan's leading regions in chicken production, where strict poultry inspection is conducted at processing plants. Licensed veterinarians serving as certified poultry inspectors visually examine approximately 50,000 chicken carcasses per day, raising concerns about inspector burden and inspection reliability. This study developed an image-based method to support screening of nonconforming carcasses, focusing on emaciation and wooden breast (WB). Video footage of the processing line was geometrically corrected and both carcasses and their supporting shackles were detected using You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLOv8). The trained model achieved a validation mean average precision at 50% intersection over union (mAP50) of 0.995. The line speed was estimated to track carcasses across frames, and known shackle dimensions were used as a reference scale to calculate carcass area and an aspect ratio defined as a thickness index. The thickness index reflects torso fullness and complements carcass area as an independent feature. Visual inspection by a former poultry inspector indicated consistency between the calculated indices and visual impressions such as "emaciated" or "WB". Scatterplots of area versus thickness index showed only a weak positive correlation, suggesting that these indices capture distinct aspects of carcass conformation. Applying threshold lines on the plots allowed classification of some nonconforming carcasses, demonstrating the potential utility of these parameters as supplementary inspection indicators. This approach may reduce inspector burden, standardize inspection quality, and contribute to the development of future automated poultry inspection systems.
Processing poultry meat generates large amounts of protein-rich side streams. Enzymatic hydrolysis is widely used for upcycling but often produces bitter and unpalatable products. Membrane filtration may improve quality, but its effects on sensory properties and composition remain unclear. This study examined microfiltration (MF), nanofiltration (NF), and diafiltration of a poultry protein hydrolysate using sensory analysis, 1H NMR metabolomics, and volatile compounds. MF removed lipids and suspended particles, reducing flavour intensity and lipid oxidation products, with hexanal reduced by 94-96%. NF reduced ash and low-molecular-weight metabolites while increasing protein levels. Despite these changes, NF had limited additional sensory effects and slightly increased bitterness, likely related to reduced salt levels and increased peptide concentration. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of matrix effects in flavour perception and support strategies to improve the sensory quality of poultry protein hydrolysates.
Campylobacter is a major bacterial cause of gastroenteritis worldwide, and poultry meat is widely recognized as a principal reservoir for human Campylobacter infection. This study characterized the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, genomic diversity, key antimicrobial-resistance determinants, and virulence genes of Campylobacter isolates collected from chicken farms and fresh retail poultry meat in ten regions of Jiangsu Province, China. The biofilm- forming capacity of selected strains was also evaluated. MLST identified CC-574 and CC-828 as the predominant clonal complexes of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli, respectively. The isolates exhibited a broad range of sequence types (STs), including 21 previously documented STs in C. jejuni and 16 in C. coli, as well as six novel STs from C. jejuni and three novel STs from C. coli. Phylogenetic analysis revealed extensive genetic diversity among the Campylobacter isolates. Overall, 46.6 % of isolates were classified as MDR. The MDR proportion was significantly higher in C. coli (75.4 %) than in C. jejuni (17.5 %), and C. coli exhibited broader resistance across the ten antibiotics assessed. Among the detected resistance genes, the resistance-enhancing variant RE-CmeABC, which was primarily harbored by C. jejuni, had the highest prevalence (32.8 %), followed by tet(O) (31.3 %), the aminoglycoside resistance gene cluster aadEsat4-aphA-3 (21.9 %), and erm(B) (9.4 %). Virulence-gene profiling of the 128 Campylobacter isolates identified 10 virulence genes across five functional categories: adhesinon, invasion, immune modulation, motility, and toxin production. The wlaN gene, which is associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, was detected in 7 (5.5 %) C. jejuni isolates. Among the 38 Campylobacter strains tested for biofilm formation, six C. coli isolates exhibited pronounce biofilm-forming capacity. These findings indicate that Campylobacter isolates from chicken farms and retail poultry meat pose potential public health risks, underscoring the need for targeted Campylobacter control strategies and providing a useful reference for future surveillance pograms.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) remains a persistent threat to poultry production systems despite reinforced biosecurity measures. This study aimed to characterize biosecurity deficiencies in HPAI-affected farms in Korea and to identify structured patterns of deficiencies. Outbreak investigation reports from 311 HPAI-affected farms (2020/2021-2024/2025 seasons) were analyzed, yielding 3,172 biosecurity deficiency records classified into 16 categories across three operational domains. Frequency analysis, k-means clustering, and association rule analysis were applied to identify deficiency patterns and co-occurrence structures. Wildlife control was the most frequent deficiency (85.9%), followed by operational management (65.9%) and deficiencies related to anteroom biosecurity measures in barns (56.3%). Four distinct farm-level deficiency profiles were identified, with significant differences in cluster membership between chicken and duck farms. Association rule analysis revealed consistent co-occurring deficiency pairs, particularly involving farm-entry measures such as visitor and vehicle disinfection. These findings indicate that biosecurity deficiencies are not isolated but form structured and interconnected patterns. A system-level approach incorporating targeted, pattern-based biosecurity interventions and risk-based surveillance prioritization may improve the sustainability and effectiveness of HPAI prevention and control in poultry production systems.
The application of biological soil amendments of animal origin (BSAAO) may facilitate the survival of foodborne pathogens in agricultural soils. This study evaluated the survival of Escherichia coli TVS353 in soils amended with heat-treated poultry pellets (HTPP) and composted poultry litter (CPL) over 140 days. Field studies were conducted in a completely randomized design at two Southeast locations, Georgia (GA) and Florida (FL). Soil properties, macronutrients, and micronutrients were monitored to determine whether they influenced E. coli survival. BSAAO‑amended soils had higher E. coli survival than non‑amended soils after 140 days, notably in FL. Location, the interaction of location with amendment type, and the interaction of location with time and amendment type significantly influenced E. coli survival (p<0.05), indicating differences in survival between locations. Amendment type significantly affected soil pH, electrical conductivity, potassium, and magnesium levels at both locations (p<0.05). In contrast, the type of amendment did not significantly influence phosphorus, calcium, zinc, manganese, carbon, and total nitrogen levels (p>0.05). The linear mixed effect analyses revealed that only NH3/NH4⁺-N levels significantly influenced E. coli populations in soil over time (p = 0.0126). Soil pH and NH3/NH4⁺-N positively correlated with E. coli populations over time.
Conventional diagnostics for livestock and poultry outbreaks commonly rely on culture or targeted PCR panels, which may be too slow or too narrow to guide early control decisions. Portable metagenomics, particularly real-time nanopore sequencing, offers a route to broad pathogen detection, antimicrobial-resistance gene profiling, and outbreak investigation within an integrated workflow. This implementation-focused review evaluates how near-point-of-care metagenomics may support preventive veterinary medicine through earlier detection, surveillance, cohorting, biosecurity decisions, and antimicrobial stewardship. We synthesize sample-to-answer workflows for enteric and respiratory disease in food-producing animals, including sampling, nucleic-acid extraction, host depletion or target enrichment, library preparation, sequencing, bioinformatics, quality control, and interpretation. Applications in calf diarrhea, bovine respiratory disease, poultry outbreaks, mastitis, and resistome monitoring are considered alongside the central limitation that detection alone does not establish causation. Pathogen and resistance-gene signals must therefore be interpreted with clinical signs, lesions, epidemiology, controls, and confirmatory testing. We also propose a minimum reporting checklist, intended as a practical framework rather than a validated consensus standard. Portable metagenomics is not a replacement for conventional diagnostics, but appropriately validated workflows can reduce uncertainty during time-sensitive outbreaks and support more judicious antimicrobial use.
Plasmid-mediated colistin and tigecycline resistance threatens last-resort therapeutic options. We investigated the farm-to-fork dissemination of Escherichia coli encoding mcr-1.1 and tet(X4) in a vertically integrated broiler production system. A total of 200 samples were collected in 2024, representing four sequential production stages: broiler breeders, day-old chicks, day-30 broilers and retail meat. All positive [mcr-1.1 and/or tet(X4)] isolates underwent Illumina short-read sequencing, with long-read sequencing of three representatives. The study was enriched and analysed with mcr-1.1 and tet(X4) encoding 213 publicly available E. coli genomes from Pakistan. Of 18 isolates, tet(X4) was detected in 11 and mcr-1.1 in 7 isolates with a single breeder isolate (ST-398) co-harbouring both on separate plasmids. tet(X4) predominated breeders and day-30 broilers, whereas mcr-1.1 was distributed across all four stages. ST-1011 exhibited a pattern of clonal farm-to-fork transmission of tet(X4) via IncFIB(AP001918)-IncFII providing molecular evidence suggestive of clonal transmission. Analysis of 231 genomes across 87 sequence types (STs) revealed contrasting evolutionary trajectories: mcr-1.1 with post-mobilization stabilization marked by complete absence of ISApl1 and highly conserved IncI2 plasmid (93%), whereas tet(X4) retained active transposition within IS26-bounded elements. tet(X4) carriage was also associated with elevated resistance gene burden, driven by the IncF megaplasmids. All 18 isolates exhibited adhesion to chicken intestinal epithelial cells (CHIC-8E11), with high adhesion capacity among tet(X4)-positive isolates. This study demonstrates that mcr-1.1 and tet(X4) disseminate through poultry production via distinct mechanisms. These findings highlight the need for integrated One Health surveillance of antimicrobial resistance dissemination.
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Avian coccidiosis, a disease resulting from infection by various Eimeria species, is a major constraint to global poultry production, causing considerable economic losses and affecting animal performance. Traditional approaches to coccidiosis control, such as anticoccidials and live vaccines, face limitations in their use owing to resistance, safety concerns, and species-specific immunity. In this regard, subunit, DNA, and multi-epitope vaccines have been tested against coccidiosis, but their efficacy is hindered by the instability of the vaccine antigens and a lack of cross-protection. However, recent advances in nanotechnology may provide a solution to the limitations associated with traditional approaches to coccidiosis control. For instance, nanoparticles may improve vaccine efficacy by stabilizing vaccine antigens, facilitating their delivery, and modulating immune responses. Furthermore, various nanoparticle therapeutics, such as plant-based and metal-based nanoparticles, and nano-encapsulated anticoccidials, may also reduce oocyst shedding and improve gut health and antioxidant status. Although this is a positive step in coccidiosis control, there are many issues that need to be resolved. This review provides a critical analysis of recent advances in various aspects of nanotechnology-based approaches to coccidiosis control, their potential, and research gaps.
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Marek's disease (MD) remains a severe economic concern in poultry industry globally despite decades of vaccination strategies. Particularly challenging are viral infections due to Marek's disease virus (MDV) (Gallid alphaherpesvirus 2, GaHV-2) strains that can escape immune defenses in areas that do not have access to molecular surveillance data. This study performed molecular epidemiology of MDV in Iraqi commercial poultry based on extensive characterization of circulating strains, quantification of subclinical infection in vaccinated flocks, and phylogenetic sequencing to determine evolutionary relationships with local isolates. A cross-sectional surveillance on five commercial layer pullet flocks given the CVI988 vaccine took place from March to June 2024. A combined sample of 250 birds (50 birds per flock) was collected from Alrashdia in Baghdad Province. In this study, estimates were made for samples based on 5% expected prevalence, 95% confidence level, and 3% precision. Pulpy feather follicles and tissues were isolated for molecular detection of MDV meq oncogene by PCR amplification with known primers. Sanger sequencing was performed later and phylogenetic reconstruction carried out using the maximum likelihood technique. Prevalence of subclinical MDV was 3.2% (8/250) in surveyed flocks, with significant operational heterogeneity (0%-6%). One flock had an acute clinical outbreak, and 86.7% of birds afflicted during the surveillance period showed paralysis. Molecular analysis revealed genetically homogeneous strain (Iraq/Baghdad/2024) with 99.8% nucleotide identity to Iranian very virulent isolates, with clustering in the very virulent pathotype clade and high bootstrap support (98%). This research describes the circulation of a very virulent, genetically uniform GaHV-2 strain capable of inducing vaccine breakthrough in Iraqi commercial poultry. The phylogenetic proximity to regional isolates suggests transboundary virus movement as a possible route of attack and highlights a gap in the level of molecular surveillance and optimization of Middle Eastern poultry production systems in immunization programs.
To analyze the relationship between dietary pattern and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among adults. Individuals aged ≥18 years with completed data in China Health and Nutrition Survey 2015 were selected. Dietary survey was performed using three consecutive 24-hour dietary recalls combined with a weighing inventory at the household level. Dietary pattern was extracted using factor analysis, and scores were categorized into four groups by quartiles. NAFLD was screened using the fatty liver index (FLI) and NAFLD liver fat score (LFS). Association between dietary patterns and NAFLD was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression model. Subgroup analyses were conducted by age, gender and eating out. A total of 9147 participants were included, and four dietary patterns were identified, named as Rice-Veg-Pork dietary pattern, Egg-Fruit dietary pattern, Wheat-Mixed Grain dietary pattern, and Poultry-and-Other-Red-Meat dietary pattern. The prevalence of NAFLD screened by FLI and NAFLD-LFS were 15.0% and 11.1%, respectively. The result showed that Rice-Veg-Pork dietary pattern and Egg-Fruit dietary pattern were not associated with the prevalence of NAFLD. Compared with the lowest quartile group (Q1), adults in the highest quartile group (Q4) of Wheat-Mixed Grain dietary pattern score had a significantly reduced odds of developing NAFLD (FLI: OR=0.766, 95%CI 0.623-0.942, Ptrend=0.002; NAFLD-LFS: OR=0.656, 95%CI 0.536-0.803, Ptrend<0.001). Similar result were observed in subgroups aged 45-59 years, ≥60 years, females, and those eating out. Poultry-and-Other-Red-Meat dietary pattern score was positively associated with odds of NAFLD (NAFLD-LFS: OR=1.088, 95%CI 1.017-1.163), and this association was not influenced by dining out. Wheat-Mixed Grain dietary pattern could reduce the odds of NAFLD in adults, whereas Poultry-and-Other-Red-Meat dietary pattern is converse.
Antibiotics are relied upon to treat and prevent infections in humans, animals, and plants. However, antimicrobial use, particularly when unnecessary or inappropriate, has contributed to the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Foodborne transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is an increasing public health concern, particularly through poultry contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni. In this study, the prevalence of Campylobacter contamination and associated antimicrobial resistance in fresh retail chicken purchased around New Zealand was investigated. Campylobacter was detected in 50% (12/24; 95% CI: 31.3%-68.7%) of samples using selective culture, PCR, and sequencing. Among confirmed isolates, high levels of resistance were observed to tetracycline (92%) and ciprofloxacin (83%), while 83% were susceptible to erythromycin. No isolate was fully susceptible to all interpreted antibiotics. These preliminary findings indicate that antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacter can be detected in fresh retail chicken in New Zealand and support the need for larger, probabilistic surveillance studies to generate national prevalence and resistance estimates. Continued surveillance, stricter policies on contaminated poultry products, and development of alternatives to traditional antibiotics are recommended to protect public health.
The interactive effects of microencapsulated essential oils-organic acids preparation (EOA) and non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) enzymes on intestinal health of broilers fed wheat-based diets remain poorly elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with EOA alone and in combination with NSP enzymes on growth performance, slaughter characteristics, serum biochemical indexes and intestinal microenvironment of broilers fed wheat-based diets. A total of 360 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly allocated to five treatment groups for 42 days (n = 6 replicates/treatment, 12 birds/replicate): the basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg EOA (A), 400 mg/kg EOA (B), 200 mg/kg NSP enzymes (C), along with 200 mg/kg NSP enzymes plus 200 mg/kg EOA (D), and 200 mg/kg NSP enzymes plus 400 mg/kg EOA (E), respectively. Growth performance was monitored on d 1, 21, and 42; slaughter characteristics, serum biochemical indexes and jejunal digestive enzyme activities were assessed on d 42; and jejunal villus morphology on d 21 and 42 was measured using hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. Additionally, on d 42, jejunal gene expression was analyzed by qPCR, cecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) content was determined using gas chromatography (GC), and cecal microbiota composition was characterized via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan's multiple range test, and statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results showed that compared with the single enzymes-added group (group C), dietary addition of EOA alone and combined with NSP enzymes had no significant impacts on the growth performance, slaughter characteristics and serum biochemical indexes of broilers (P > 0.05). However, group D exhibited a 23% decrease in jejunal crypt depth and a 37% increase in villus height to crypt depth ratio (VH/CD) on d 21, and a 29% decrease in crypt depth with a 36% increase in VH/CD on d 42 compared with group C (P < 0.05). Single EOA supplementation significantly decreased jejunal trypsin activity, with 53% and 50% reductions in group A and group B, respectively, relative to group C (P = 0.035). For cecal SCFAs, group B showed a 69% decrease in isovaleric acid content (P = 0.012), while group D had a 73% increase in butyric acid content and a 34% increase in total SCFAs content compared with group C (P < 0.05). In group E, the jejunal mRNA expression of IFN-γ was upregulated 2.0-fold, and the relative abundance of Bacteroides_fragilis in the cecum was reduced by 42% when compared with group C (P = 0.001 and P = 0.034, respectively). Collectively, these findings indicate that the combined application of NSP enzymes with low-dose EOA (200 mg/kg) in wheat-based diets can optimize the intestinal microenvironment of broilers by reducing crypt depth, elevating the VH/CD ratio, and increasing the content of cecal butyric acid and total SCFAs, without compromising growth performance. In contrast, the combination of NSP enzymes with high-dose EOA (400 mg/kg) triggers intestinal microbial dysbiosis and intestinal inflammatory responses in broilers. Therefore, high-dose EOA is not recommended for combined supplementation with NSP enzymes in wheat-based broiler diets under conventional conditions. With policies restricting antibiotic overuse becoming mainstream, farmers are turning to non-antibiotic feed additives to maintain poultry health. Based on this trend, this study evaluated the effects of supplementing wheat-based broiler diets with essential oils-organic acids mixture (EOA) alongside enzyme preparations. The results showed that combining a low dose of EOA with enzyme preparations effectively improved the intestinal microenvironment of poultry, outperforming the individual use of each component. However, surprisingly, high-dose supplementation exacerbated intestinal burden and worsened health conditions. These findings demonstrate that an optimal ratio of feed additives is required for maximum efficacy, whereas indiscriminate application can lead to either ineffective waste or adverse outcomes.
Animal husbandry is widely practiced on the household scale in communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and, while having economic and health benefits, exposes household members to risk of zoonotic infections to an extent that is unclear. While demand for georeferenced information on infectious disease risk factors and drivers is growing, spatial variation in livestock ownership remains poorly characterized at high resolution. This study aimed to use geostatistical methods to model and map the prevalence of livestock husbandry in LMICs for three major animal taxa: poultry, swine, and ruminants. Microdata relating to ownership of livestock animal species were sourced from various population-based survey programs which together cover the majority of LMICs and categorized. These were georeferenced and spatially matched with a panel of time-fixed environmental and demographic spatial covariates, INLA models were fitted to the resulting database, and probabilities for ownership of each livestock taxon predicted based on the model parameter estimates. The results indicated widespread poultry ownership across rural Central America, the Amazon basin, tropical Africa and river basins and forests of East Asia. Swine husbandry is the least widely practiced among the three livestock taxa and concentrated in an undulating belt of higher prevalence extending from central China, through southeast Asia to Northeastern India, though such predictions in data-sparse regions (particularly Muslim-majority areas) represent regional covariate patterns rather than fine-scale measurements. To address non-stationarity in swine spatial structure, region-specific spatial kernels were implemented. Rearing of ruminant livestock appears widespread across subequatorial Africa, Central Asia, the Gobi Desert, the Himalayas, Mongolia and northern India. The models perform impressively by most standard evaluation metrics, and the patterns in their predictions align with external evidence. The distribution of this important risk factor for infectious disease transmission can be modeled using publicly available data sources to generate plausible and potentially actionable predictions over wide geographic areas and identify regions of high exposure to animal disease reservoirs. The resulting predicted prevalence estimates are made available as supplementary files in GIS-compatible format.
Avian influenza A virus (IAV) is a major global health threat. Not only does it cause significant economic losses to the agricultural industry, but it also presents a risk of spillover into the human population. However, several obstacles must be overcome for a successful cross-species transmission event to occur. One of these obstacles is the innate immunity of the host. While the innate immune response to IAV in humans has been well-studied, the innate immune response to IAV in birds is not as well understood. Here, we explore the interferon-induced immune response by identifying interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in chicken, quail, and duck cells, and find that they are largely species-specific. Using this data, we performed a CRISPR knockout ISG screen against two strains of IAV, the mouse-adapted PR8, and the low pathogenicity avian IAV isolate WF10. We find that for PR8, IFITM3 is the dominant restrictor of viral replication with several additional hits with modest effects, consistent with previous work in mammals. For avian WF10, IFITM3 was also a hit however there were two additional hits absent for PR8, the HSP70 co-chaperone protein BAG5 and deubiquitinase OTUD4. Overall, these findings confirm the divergence of interferon-mediated immunity between species and establish a screening system that can be used to identify ISGs important for viral restriction in avian species. Wild birds, especially waterfowl and shore birds, are the primary natural reservoir for influenza A viruses. These birds can transmit IAV to domestic poultry, where the spillover risk to humans increases. Chickens are the most common species of domestic poultry world-wide and are frequently infected with avian influenza viruses. Despite this, relatively little is known about how their immune system responds to influenza infection. This lack of knowledge creates a barrier to finding ways of preventing or mitigating IAV infection in chicken flocks. In this study, we characterized the interferon-induced immune response to IAV in chickens and found that only a small subset of ISGs were responsible for restricting IAV in chicken cells.
Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) pose a continuous threat to global poultry production and animal health, maintained largely within wild bird reservoirs and dispersed along migratory flyways. Among these, the low-pathogenic H6N1 subtype circulates widely across East Asia and is a key subject of genomic surveillance. In this study, we characterized the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) gene segments of seven H6N1 viruses isolated from 9,206 wild bird fecal samples across 10 key breeding habitats in Mongolia (April-October, 2022-2024) and evaluated their genetic relationships with seven H6N1 strains isolated from fecal samples of wild birds (n = 7,419) and domestic ducks (n = 79,386) in the Republic of Korea (ROK) between September 2023 and April 2024 using Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. All analyzed isolates belonged to the Northeast Asian lineage, primarily diverging into two regional subclades around 2016-2017 (time to the most recent common ancestor [tMRCA]: HA, Dec 2017; NA, Nov 2016). Both HA and NA phylogenies exhibited a ladder-like topology structured across distinct geographical regions, indicating localized variant generation and turnover. Comparable evolutionary rates and restricted reassortment between HA and NA segments underscore strong co-adaptation driven by functional balance between HA receptor binding and NA enzymatic activity. Despite the substantial geographical distance between Mongolia and the ROK, these H6N1 isolates demonstrated close genetic connectivity within the Northeast Asian lineage (Bayes factor > 100). Their surface gene diversification was primarily shaped by antigenic drift alongside restricted regional intra- and inter-clade reassortment. Given the continuous evolutionary dynamics of surface glycoproteins, sustained transboundary monitoring across wild waterfowl and poultry populations is warranted to track regional H6N1 variants.
Vietnamese indigenous chickens and their wild progenitors represent a critical but under-characterized reservoir of avian genetic diversity. This study used a multi-locus approach, incorporating 28 neutral microsatellite markers and candidate functional genes (HSP70, HSP90, and ADSL). We successfully delineated the genetic structure and adaptive potential of 12 native Vietnamese indigenous chicken populations and red junglefowl (Gallus gallus). Microsatellite analysis revealed high genetic diversity (411 alleles) and significant regional structuring into three primary groups, suggesting extensive historical gene flow and shared ancestral heritage with Thai indigenous breeds. High-throughput sequencing of functional loci identified five novel HSP70, 10 novel HSP90, and five novel ADSL alleles, underscoring the unique genetic heritage of Vietnamese avian resources. Selective signature analyses confirmed that, while purifying selection maintains core protein stability, specific codons, notably in HSP70 (18, 33, 41, and 42) and HSP90 (7), exhibit putative signals of positive selection. These loci emerge as compelling candidates for functional studies underlying thermal adaptation. Moreover, the meat quality gene ADSL exhibited diversifying selection at codon 58, highlighting a candidate molecular marker for the potential enhancement of savoriness and inosine monophosphate content. These findings, which reconcile neutral population structure with candidate signals of localized adaptive divergence, address a critical regional knowledge gap and provide a scientific foundation for future marker-assisted selection programs. By integrating these results into the Siam Chicken Bioresource Project, this study promotes transboundary conservation and the sustainable development of climate-resilient poultry systems in a warming world.
Black soldier fly larva (BSFL) protein has gained attention as a sustainable alternative protein source in poultry nutrition. However, its effects on gut-related processes remain insufficiently characterized. This study evaluated the in vitro digestibility and fermentability of BSFL protein compared to plant-based proteins, including wheat gluten, corn distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS corn), and peas, using an in vitro digestion, absorption, and fermentation model. Crude protein, degree of protein hydrolysis, and in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) were assessed, alongside gas production kinetics, ammonia, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), branched-chain fatty acids, and microbiota modulation of a single, pooled broiler cecal inoculum during fermentation. An IVPD of 63.5% was observed for BSFL, being lower than for wheat gluten (84.4%) and peas (74.6%), and higher than for DDGS corn (36.9%) (P < 0.05). Its gas production (92.5 mL g-1) and SCFA levels (23.8 mmol L-1) are similar to those of other protein ingredients (P < 0.05). Peas showed the highest total SCFA (45.7 mmol L-1) and total gas production (147.3 mL g-1). Microbiota analysis revealed distinct communities shaped by protein ingredient. Fermentation of BSFL was associated with a relatively higher abundance of Escherichia-Shigella, warranting further investigation. In addition, relatively higher abundances of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were associated with BSFL. As no differentially abundant genera were identified by ANCOM-BC2, these microbiota-related findings should be considered exploratory. Overall, BSFL protein appears to be a promising partial replacement for plant-based proteins in broiler diets, demonstrating similar digestibility, but promoting distinct microbiota-associated responses. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.