Effects of Furnished Cage Type on Behavior and Welfare of Laying Hens

Li, Xiang,Chen, Donghua,Li, Jianhong,Bao, Jun Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2016 Animal Bioscience Vol.29 No.6

This study was conducted to compare the effects of layout of furniture (a perch, nest, and sandbox) in cages on behavior and welfare of hens. Two hundred and sixteen Hyline Brown laying hens were divided into five groups (treatments) with four replicates per group: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III) and conventional cages (CC). The experiment started at 18 week of age and finished at 52 week of age. Hens' behaviors were filmed during the following periods: 8:00 to 10:00; 13:00 to 14:00; 16:00 to 17:00 on three separate days and two hens from each cage were measured for welfare parameters at 50 wk of age. The results showed that feeding and laying of all hens showed no effect by cage type (p>0.05), and the hens in the furnished cages had significantly lower standing and higher walking than CC hens (p<0.05). The birds in MFC-III had significant higher preening, scratching and feather-pecking behavior than in the other cages (p<0.05). No difference in nesting behavior was found in the hens between the furnished cages (p>0.05). The hens in MFC-I, -II, and -III showed a significant higher socializing behavior than SFC and CC (p<0.05). The lowest perching was for the hens in SFC and the highest perching found for the hens in MFC-III. Overall, the hens in CC showed poorer welfare conditions than the furnished cages, in which the feather condition score, gait score and tonic immobility duration of the hens in CC was significantly higher than SFC, MFC-I, MFC-II, and MFC-III (p<0.05). In conclusion, the furnished cage design affected both behavior and welfare states of hens. Overall, MFC-III cage design was better than SFC, MFC-I, and MFC-II cage designs.

Exterior egg quality as affected by enrichment resources layout in furnished laying-hen cages

Li, Xiang,Chen, Donghua,Meng, Fanyu,Su, Yingying,Wang, Lisha,Zhang, Runxiang,Li, Jianhong,Bao, Jun Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2017 Animal Bioscience Vol.30 No.10

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of enrichment resources (a perch, dustbath, and nest) layout in furnished laying-hen cages (FC) on exterior quality of eggs. Methods: One hundred and sixty-eight (168) Hy-Line Brown laying hens at 16 weeks of age were randomly distributed to four treatments: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III). Each treatment had 4 replicates or cages with 6 hens for SFC (24 birds for each SFC) and 12 hen/cage for MFC-I, -II, and -III (48 birds for each MFC-I, -II and -III). Following a 2-week acclimation, data collection started at 18 weeks of age and continued till 52 weeks of age. Dirtiness of egg surface or cracked shell as indicators of the exterior egg quality were recorded each week. Results: The results showed that the proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was significantly affected by the FC type (p<0.01) in that the highest proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was found in MFC-I and the lowest proportion of dirty eggs in SFC. The results of this showed that furnished cage types affected both dirty eggs and cracked eggs (p<0.01). The results also indicated that not nest but dustbath lead to more dirty eggs. Only MFC-I had higher dirty eggs at nest than other FC (p<0.01). The results of dirty eggs in MFC-I and MFC-II compared with SFC and MFC-III seemed suggest that a low position of dustbath led to more dirty eggs. Conclusion: SFC design affected exterior egg quality and the low position of dustbath in FC resulted in higher proportion of dirty eggs.

Procaine Attenuates Pain Behaviors of Neuropathic Pain Model Rats Possibly via Inhibiting JAK2/STAT3

( Donghua Li ),( Yurong Yan ),( Lingzhi Yu ),( Yong Duan ) 한국응용약물학회 2016 Biomolecules & Therapeutics(구 응용약물학회지) Vol.24 No.5

Neuropathic pain (NPP) is the main culprit among chronic pains affecting the normal life of patients. Procaine is a frequently-used local anesthesia with multiple efficacies in various diseases. However, its role in modulating NPP has not been reported yet. This study aims at uncovering the role of procaine in NPP. Rats were pretreated with procaine by intrathecal injection. Then NPP rat model was induced by sciatic nerve chronic compression injury (CCI) and behavior tests were performed to analyze the pain behaviors upon mechanical, thermal and cold stimulations. Spinal expression of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) was detected by qRT-PCR and western blot. JAK2 was also overexpressed in procaine treated model rats for behavior tests. Results showed that procaine pretreatment improved the pain behaviors of model rats upon mechanical, thermal and cold stimulations, with the best effect occurring on the 15^th day post model construction (p<0.05). Procaine also inhibited JAK2 and STAT3 expression in both mRNA (p<0.05) and protein levels. Overexpression of JAK2 increased STAT3 level and reversed the improvement effects of procaine in pain behaviors (p<0.01). These findings indicate that procaine is capable of attenuating NPP, suggesting procaine is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating NPP. Its role may be associated with the inhibition on JAK2/STAT3 signaling.

Procaine Attenuates Pain Behaviors of Neuropathic Pain Model Rats Possibly via Inhibiting JAK2/STAT3

Li, Donghua,Yan, Yurong,Yu, Lingzhi,Duan, Yong The Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology 2016 Biomolecules & Therapeutics(구 응용약물학회지) Vol.24 No.5

Neuropathic pain (NPP) is the main culprit among chronic pains affecting the normal life of patients. Procaine is a frequently-used local anesthesia with multiple efficacies in various diseases. However, its role in modulating NPP has not been reported yet. This study aims at uncovering the role of procaine in NPP. Rats were pretreated with procaine by intrathecal injection. Then NPP rat model was induced by sciatic nerve chronic compression injury (CCI) and behavior tests were performed to analyze the pain behaviors upon mechanical, thermal and cold stimulations. Spinal expression of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) was detected by qRT-PCR and western blot. JAK2 was also overexpressed in procaine treated model rats for behavior tests. Results showed that procaine pretreatment improved the pain behaviors of model rats upon mechanical, thermal and cold stimulations, with the best effect occurring on the $15^{th}$ day post model construction (p<0.05). Procaine also inhibited JAK2 and STAT3 expression in both mRNA (p<0.05) and protein levels. Overexpression of JAK2 increased STAT3 level and reversed the improvement effects of procaine in pain behaviors (p<0.01). These findings indicate that procaine is capable of attenuating NPP, suggesting procaine is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating NPP. Its role may be associated with the inhibition on JAK2/STAT3 signaling.

Study on the role of gga-miRNA-200a in regulating cell differentiation and proliferation of chicken breast muscle by targeting Grb2

Keren Jiang,Fengbin Yan,Meng Zhang,Fang Li,Donghua Li,Guirong Sun,Xiaojun Liu,Hong Li,Ruili Han,Ruirui Jiang,Zhuanjian Li,Xiangtao Kang 한국통합생물학회 2017 Animal cells and systems Vol.21 No.6

Growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2) have been proved by a lot of studies playing a major role in cell proliferation and cell differentiation. However, the regulation of Grb2 expression by microRNAs (miRNAs) in chicken breast muscle still remains unknown. The expression profile of Grb2 was checked based on our previous RNA sequencing data and the Grb2 relative expression level in breast muscle of aged hens (55-week-old) was validated significantly higher than juvenile hens (20-week-old) using qRT-PCR. miRNAs that interact with Grb2 have been predicted in chicken and the relationship between the potential miRNA and Grb2 was verified using dual luciferase reporter assay in chicken DF1 cells. Dual-luciferase reporter assays results demonstrated that the expression of luciferase reporter gene linked with part sequence of the 3′UTR of chicken Grb2 gene was down-regulated by the overexpression of gga (Gallus Gallus)- miR-200a-3p in the DF1 cells, and the down-regulation behavior was abolished when the ggamiR- 200a-3p binding site in 3′UTR of Grb2 was mutated, indicating that gga-miR-200a can suppress the expression level of its target gene Grb2. Therefore, we concluded that the significantly increased expression level of Grb2 in the breast muscle of aged chicken can (at least partly can) be explained by the decreased expression of miR-200a, which reduced the inhibitory effect on Grb2. Taken together, these findings suggest that gga-miR-200a can suppress the expression level of its target gene Grb2 and might be involved in the cell differentiation and proliferation of chicken breast muscle through binding with the 3’UTR of Grb2.

Analysis and Optimization of Air-Core Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motors with Overlapping Concentrated Windings for Ultra-precision Applications

Li, Liyi,Tang, Yongbin,Ma, Mingna,Pan, Donghua Journal of International Conference on Electrical 2013 Journal of international Conference on Electrical Vol.2 No.1

This paper presents the analysis and optimization of air-core permanent magnet linear synchronous motor with overlapping concentrated windings to achieve high thrust density, high thrust per copper losses and low thrust ripple. For the motor design, we adopt equivalent magnetizing current (EMC) method to analyze the magnetic field and give analytical formulae for calculation of motor parameters such as no-load back EMF, dynamic force, thrust density and thrust per copper losses. Further, we proposed a multi-objective optimization by genetic algorithm to search for the optimum parameters. The design optimization is verified by 2-D Finite Element analysis (FEA).

Behavior of Continuous Steel-concrete Composite Beams with Web Openings

Longqi Li,Wenyuan Liao,Jun Wang,Donghua Zhou 한국강구조학회 2015 International Journal of Steel Structures Vol.15 No.4

In order to investigate the mechanical performance and load carrying capacity of continuous steel-concrete composite beams with web openings, five continuous composite beams with web openings and a contrasting continuous composite beam without web openings were tested through two symmetric point loads. Nonlinear finite element analysis was also conducted, in which the slab thickness and the reinforcement ratio of slabs were selected as the major parameters. The main results of this test were concluded as follows: (1) Web openings not only decrease the stiffness and ultimate load carrying capacity of continuous composite beams but also give rise to the redistribution of vertical shear force between the cross section of the steel beam and the concrete slab at the web opening region. (2) The plane hypothesis is not satisfied at the web opening region. The failure mode of continuous composite beams with web openings is the shear failure of concrete slab in the region near the opening, and the result also indicates that the shear bearing capacity at the span with web openings become a critical factor in controlling design. (3) Meanwhile, by increasing the thickness and reinforcement ratio of a concrete slab, the ultimate load carrying capacity and ductility of continuous composite beams increased, which can be used to the enhancement of web opening region. (4) In addition, based on the experimental results, a finite element mode was established for composite beams with web openings, and good agreement was obtained between the tested results and the numerical results.