Nutritional Impacts of Dietary Selenium, Iodine and their Interaction on Egg Performance, and Antioxidant Profile in Laying Longyuan Duck Breeders. Biological trace element research The present study aimed to optimize the combined effect of dietary selenium (SE) and iodine (ID) on the productive and reproductive performance and antioxidant capacity of Longyuan breeding ducks. A total of 288 Longyan duck breeders aged 20 wk were randomly assigned to four groups with six replicates (n = 72 ducks/group; 12 ducks/replicate). A 2 × 2 factorial arrangement experiment was performed and included 2 supplementation levels of each SE and ID for 200 days of the experimental period. The first group (SE0/ID0) received a basal diet without SE or ID supplementation and was considered to be the control group, whereas the other three groups, SE0/ID4, SE2/ID0 and SE2/ID4, received a basal diet supplemented with 0.4 mg ID/kg, 0.2 mg SE/kg or 0.2 mg SE supplemented with 0.4 mg ID/kg, respectively. The results indicated that the albumin height of the SE2/ID0 group was lower (P < 0.05) than that of the control group, that the egg shape index of the SE2/ID4 and SE0/ID4 groups were lower (P < 0.05) than that of the control group (SE0/ID0), and that the SE concentration significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the SE2/ID0 and SE2/ID4 groups. Hatchability and embryonic mortality improved (P < 0.05) in the SE2/ID0 group. Plasma GSH-Px activity was increased (P < 0.05) by reducing the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) in the SE groups. In addition, the tibia length significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the ID (SE0/ID4 and SE2/ID4) groups compared with that in the control group, the plasma content of IGF-1 in the SE2/ID4 and SE0/ID4 groups were greater (P < 0.05) than that in the control group, and the bone mineral content increased (P > 0.05) in the SE2/ID0 and SE0/ID0 groups. Compared with those in the other groups, the mRNA expression of antioxidant-related genes, including Nrf2 and SHMT1 in the SE2/ID4 group was upregulated (P > 0.05), especially in the SE2/ID4 group. Overall, dietary treatment with SE2/ID4 (0.2 mg SE in 0.4 mg ID/kg diet) could be a suitable feed supplement for improving the the egg quality, health status, endogenous antioxidant content, antioxidant-related gene expression and pre-hatching quality of Longyuan duck breeders. 10.1007/s12011-024-04308-z

Lauric acid content in intramuscular fat is a reliable indicator of black soldier fly larvae meal consumption in Muscovy ducks. Heliyon The present research investigated if intramuscular fatty acid (FA) profile could distinguish meat from ducks fed with black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM) during fattening. By using stepwise linear discriminant analysis on FA profiles of 96 meat samples, lauric acid (C12:0) was found to be the best predictor, accurately differentiating samples with only two misclassifications. The Fisher classification functions indicated that breast samples with lauric acid content above 0.222 % in intramuscular fat would be classified as BSFLM-fed. The Fisher classification functions were also effective in other poultry species fed BSFLM, with only two misclassified samples out of 42 samples from a dataset compiled from published papers. Misclassifications were linked to an unexpected lauric acid content in the intramuscular fat. In conclusion, given that BSFLM is the only relevant source of lauric acid in the diet, this fatty acid could identify meat from BSFLM-fed ducks and possibly other poultry species, warranting further exploration of other FA as potential identifiers of BSFLM-fed poultry. 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31064

Development of hepatic steatosis in male and female mule ducks after respective force-feeding programs. Frontiers in physiology Male and female mule ducks were subjected to a force-feeding diet to induce liver steatosis as it is generally done only with male ducks for the production of foie gras. The different biochemical measurements indicated that the course of hepatic steatosis development was present in both sexes and associated with a huge increase in liver weight mainly due to the synthesis and accumulation of lipids in hepatocytes. In livers of male and female ducks, this lipid accumulation was associated with oxidative stress and hypoxia. However, certain specific modifications (kinetics of lipid droplet development and hepatic inflammation) indicate that female ducks may tolerate force-feeding less well, at least at the hepatic level. This is in contradiction with what is generally reported concerning hepatic steatosis induced by dietary disturbances in mammals but could be explained by the very specific conditions imposed by force-feeding. Despite this, force-feeding female ducks seems entirely feasible, provided that the final quality of the product is as good as that of the male ducks, which will remain to be demonstrated in future studies. 10.3389/fphys.2024.1392968