• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1692-1697
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• 2023

Staphylococcus aureus integrated with mecA gene, which codes for penicillin-binding protein 2a, is resistant to all penicillins and other beta-lactam antibiotics, resulting in poor treatment expectations in skin and soft tissue infections. The development of a simple, sensitive and portable biosensor for mecA gene analysis in S. aureus is urgently needed. Herein, we propose a dual-toehold-probe (sensing probe)-mediated exonuclease-III (Exo-III)-assisted signal recycling for portable detection of the mecA gene in S. aureus. When the target mecA gene is present, it hybridizes with the sensing probe, initiating Exo III-assisted dual signal recycles, which in turn release numerous "3" sequences. The released "3" sequences initiate catalytic hairpin amplification, resulting in the fixation of a sucrase-labeled H2 probe on the surface of magnetic beads (MBs). After magnet-based enrichment of an MB-H1-H2-sucrase complex and removal of a liquid supernatant containing free sucrase, the complex is then used to catalyze sucrose to glucose, which can be quantitatively detected by a personal glucose meter. With a limit of detection of 4.36 fM for mecA gene, the developed strategy exhibits high sensitivity. In addition, good selectivity and anti-interference capability were also attained with this method, making it promising for antibiotic tolerance analysis at the point-of-care.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.375-382
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• 2006

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary herbal plant mixture on growth performance, blood immunological parameters, fecal VFA and NH3-N concentrations in growing pigs. The dietary treatments were 1) NC (negative control; antibiotics-free diet), 2) PC (positive control; NC diet added 0.16% antibiotic), 3) NCK0.2 (NC diet added 0.2% herbal plant mixture (koppuul??)) and 4) PCK0.1 (PC diet added 0.1% herbal plant mixture (koppuul??)). Eighty crossbred (Landrace×Yorkshire×Duroc) pigs (16.35±0.05kg average initial body weight) were used for 42 days. The pigs were assigned to the treatments according to body weight and each treatment had 5 replicates of 4 pigs per pen in a randomized complete block design. During the whole experimental period, PCK0.1 and PC treatments had significantly higher ADG than NC treatment (P<0.05). Gain/feed of pigs fed PC diet was higher than that of pigs fed NC diet (P<0.05). For blood immunological parameters investigations, white blood cells (WBC) counts and IgG level increased in the pigs fed PC, NCK0.2 and PCK0.1 diets compared to pigs fed NC diet. In addition, higher (P<0.05) serum lymphocyte concentration was found in PCK0.1 treatment compared to NC treatment. NH3-N concentration in pigs fed NCK0.2% diet was lower than that in pigs fed PC and NC diets. There were no significant differences in DM and N digestibilities among the treatments. In conclusion, the results suggested that the dietary additions of herbal plant mixture or antibiotics increase ADG, the concentrations of WBC counts and IgG, lymphocyte, while decrease NH3-N concentration in feces.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.621-632
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• 2007

The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize bacteriocin-producing bacteria from the intestine of duck to use as probiotics for livestock. A total of 416 strains were isolated from the small intestine and cecum of ducks and 13 isolates were finally selected after determinging inhibitory activity against pathogenic indicators by spot-on-lawn method. The selected strains were identified as Lactobacillus salivarius JWS 58, Lactobacillus plantarum JWS 1354, Pediococcus pentosaceus JWS 939, 7 strains of enterococci, and 3 strains of Escherichia coli. Lact. salivarius JWS 58, Ent. faecium JWS 833, and Ped. pentosaceus JWS 939 showed a strong inhibitory activity against Listeria monocytogenes. E. coli JWS 108 inhibited the growth of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Lact. salivarius JWS 58 strain survived almost 50% in pH 2.5 phosphate buffer for 2 hr. Ped. pentosaceus JWS 939 and Lact. plantarum JWS 1354 showed strong amylolytic activity. These results suggest that a combination of bacteriocins or multispecies probiotics of the selected strains has a strong potential of alternative to antibiotics in livestock production.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.459-463
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• 2013

A study investigated the effects of a mixture of Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) on diarrhea incidence, immune response, and fecal microflora counts in post-weaning piglets. One hundred 28-day-old piglets were randomly assigned to five treatment groups: negative control (NC), free of antibiotics; positive control (PC), 0.03% chlortetracycline; LB 1, a mixture of L. plantarum and B. subtilis (LB) 0.5 kg/ton feed; LB 2, LB 1.0 kg/ton feed; and LB 3, LB 2.0 kg/ton feed. Diarrhea scores for LB 2 and LB 3 from the 2nd week were significantly reduced compared to NC (P<0.05). In terms of the level of IgG and IFN-${\gamma}$, all treatment groups were significantly higher than NC (P<0.05), and the IgG level of LB 3 was significantly higher than that of PC (P<0.05). Furthermore, fecal lactic acid bacteria (LAB) counts for LB 2 and LB 3 were significantly higher than those of NC and PC (P<0.05). In addition, fecal Enterobacteriaceae (ENT) counts for PC, LB 2 and LB 3 were significantly lower than those of NC (P<0.05). Based on the results from this study, it was concluded that a combination of L. plantarum and B. subtilis strains could be used as potential alternatives to antibiotics to prevent diarrhea incidence in piglets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1139-1144
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• 2004

In Exp. 1, a total of 36 pigs (6.55$\pm$0.10 kg average initial body weight and 21 d average age) were used in a 14 d growth study to determine the effects of replacing spray-dried plasma protein (SDPP) with spray-dried egg protein containing specific egg yolk antibody (SDEP) on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs. The pigs were blocked by weight and assigned to treatments based on sex. There were three pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments were 0, 3, or 6% SDEP and contained 6, 3, or 0% SDPP, respectively. Through the entire experimental period, average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain/feed tended to decrease as the concentration of SDEP increased in the diets. However, there were no significant differences among the treatments (p>0.05). As the addition of SDEP in the diets increased, apparent digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and nitrogen (N) were decreased without significant (p>0.05). For Exp. 2, 36 pigs (2.63$\pm$0.04 kg average initial body weight and 10 d average age) were used in a 14 d growth study to determine the effects of antibiotic replacement with SDEP on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in early-weaned pigs. The pigs were blocked by weight and assigned to treatments based on sex. There were three pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments included 1) ANTIBIOTIC (corn-dried whey-soybean meal based diet+0.08% antibiotics, 4 mg of tiamuline hydrogen fumarate; 10 mg of sulfadimidine per kg of complete diet), 2) SDEP0.1 (corndried whey-SBM based diet+0.1% SDEP), and 3) SDEP0.2 (corn-dried whey-SBM based diet+0.2% SDEP). ADG and gain/feed of pigs fed the SDEP0.2 diet were higher than for pigs fed the ANTIBIOTIC diet without significant (p>0.05). Pigs fed the diet with SDEP0.2 tended to have increased apparent digestibilities of DM and N compared to pigs fed the ANTIBIOTIC diet without significant (p>0.05). In conclusion, the dietary SDEP seemed to be partial replacing the SDPP portion of high nutrient dense diet for weaned pigs. Also, dietary SDEP seemed to be approximately 0.2% or more when the pigs fed the antibiotic-free diet for early-weaned pigs.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2007

The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of Korean mistletoe (KM) on performance and blood characteristics in broiler chickens. A total of four hundred eighty, 1-d-old male broiler chicks (Ross) were divided into 4 groups with 4 replicates of 30 birds each. The treatments were NC (antibiotics-free diet), PC (NC diet added antibiotics), 0.5% KM (NC diet added 0.5% of KM) and 1.0% KM (NC diet added 1.0% of KM), and the birds were raised for 49 days. There were no significant differences in feed intake and body weight gain among treatments. On d 49, the relative length of jejunum in 1.0% KM tended to be increased or significantly (P<0.05) increased compare to those of other groups. On d 35, the colony forming unit of Salmonella spp. of ceca significantly (P<0.05) decreased by feeding KM. The counts of lymphocyte of KM significantly (P<0.05) increased compare to those of the PC.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 1978

One hundred and three clinical isolates of enterococci were examined for susceptibility to 8 antibiotics, and transferability and transfer frequency of R plasmid. Ampicillin was the most active, followed in decreasing order by rifampin, amikacin and chloramphenicol, and tetracycline. High-level resistance(${\geq}2,000{\mu}g/ml$) to kanamycin, streptomycin, and gentamicin, known as the most active of the aminoglycosides to enterococcus, was present in 26.2%, 21.4%, and 18.3% of the isolates, respectively. In the drug susceptibility of the species, S. zymogenes was the most resistant and S. durans was the most sensitive to tested antibiotics. We could observed the transferability of enterococcal R plasmid in mixed culture: among the 28 strains which showed multiple drug resistance, 17 strains transferred all or part of their resistance with $2{\times}10^{-4}-2{\times}10^{-6}%$ of transfer frequency to a plasmid-free recipient, S. faecalis strain JH 2-2.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.527-539
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• 2010

This study was conducted to determine the effect of probiotics as an alternative for antibiotics on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, noxious gas emission and fecal microbial population in growing piglets. A total of 96 piglets ($22.5{\pm}1.3$kg average body weight) were allotted to 3 different treatment groups and replicated 4 times with 8 piglets per replicate in randomized complete block design. Treatments were T1) (Control, basal diet+0.2% antibiotics), T2) 0.2% probiotics complex and T3) 0.3% Bacillus probiotics. During the whole experiment period, there were no differences (p>0.05) in average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed efficiency. However, digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, nitrogen free extract and crude ash were showed higher in probiotics groups (T2 and T3) than those of control. In noxious gas emission, ammonia, amine, hydrogen sulfide and mercaptan were significantly (p<0.05) reduced in T2 and T3 treatments compared to those in control. Moisture content of feces was not significantly different among treatments. The colony forming units (CFU) of total bacteria, E. coli and thermoduric bacteria in feces were significantly different among treatments. The CFU of total bacteria, E. coli and thermoduric bacteria in T3 treatment were reduced by feeding probiotics B. From this study, we suggest that probiotics A and B are likely able to improve the growth performance and nutrients digestibility, reduce noxious gas emission and change the fecal microbial composition in growing piglets.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2011

Purpose : Pneumococcus is one of the most important causes of invasive infection through the childhood period. In January 2008, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) published revised penicillin breakpoints for Streptococcus pneumoniae and penicillin susceptibility rates of S. pneumoniae increased in Korea. This study was performed to determine the probability of oral amoxicillin for the empirical treatment achieving bactericidal exposure against pneumococcus using pharmacodynamics model. Methods : Twenty-three isolates of pneumococci were subjected to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for ${\beta}$-lactams and macrolide. For the ${\beta}$-lactams, exposure of fT >MIC (time that free drug concentrations remain above the MIC) for 50% of the administration interval have determined the probability of target attainment (PTA), and regimens that had a PTA >90% were considered optimal. An analysis was performed by applying MIC of 23 isolates to a 5000-patient Monte Carlo simulation model. Results : Among 23 isolates from healthy children, 7 (30.4%) isolates were MIC ${\leq}$1.0 ${\mu}g$/mL and 19 (82.6%) were MIC ${\leq}$2 ${\mu}g$/mL for amoxicillin. Amoxicillin 40 mg/kg/day achieved PTA >90% at MIC ${\leq}$1.0 ${\mu}g$/mL but PTA decreased to 52% at MIC 2 ${\mu}g$/mL, whereas amoxicillin 90 mg/kg/day can predict 97% of PTA at MIC 2 ${\mu}g$/mL. Overall, oral amoxicillin 90 mg/ kg/day for the empirical treatment against pneumococcus can expect more successful response in Korean children. Conclusion : Considering the resistantce pattern of pneumococci in Korean children, we estimate that oral amoxicillin 90 mg/kg/day will provide a pharmacodynamic advantage for the empirical treatment against pneumococcus. And low dose amoxicillin or macrolide are expected to have higher chance of treatment failure than high dose oral amoxicillin.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.384-389
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• 2016

A total of 400, one day-old commercial broiler chicks were divided into five diet groups (negative control, positive control group with 55 ppm Zn-bacitracin, 15 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan, 30 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan, and 60 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan) and fed for six weeks. Ten broilers were allotted to each of 40 floor pens. Eight floor pens were randomly assigned to one of the 5 diets. Each diet was fed to the broilers for 6 weeks with free access to water and diet. The survival rate, growth rate, feed efficiency, and feed conversion rate of the broilers were calculated. At the end of the feeding trial, the birds were slaughtered, breast muscles deboned, and quality parameters of the breast meat during storage were determined. The high level of dietary ${\beta}$-glucan (60 ppm) showed better feed conversion ratio and survival rate than the negative control. The survival rate of 60 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan-treated group was the same as that of the antibiotic-treated group, which showed the highest survival rate among the treatments. There was no significant difference in carcass yield, water holding capacity, pH, color, and 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values of chicken breast meat among the 5 treatment groups. Supplementation of 60 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan to broiler diet improved the survival rate and feed conversion rate of broilers to the same level as 55 ppm Zn-bacitracin group. The result indicated that use of ${\beta}$-glucan (60 ppm) can be a potential alternative to antibiotics to improve the survival and performance of broilers. However, dietary ${\beta}$-glucan showed no effects on the quality parameters of chicken breast meat.