• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.379-385
• /
• 2015

We studied the effects of the proprietary prebiotic Immunogen$^{(R)}$ on the growth, hematology and gut microbiota of common carp fingerlings. A basal diet was formulated using common feed ingredients and supplemented with Immunogen$^{(R)}$ at concentrations of 0, 5, 10, 20 and $40g\;kg^{-1}$, each of which was tested experimentally on replicated groups of fish. The trials ran for 8 weeks. Common carp fingerlings with an initial weight of $4.82{\pm}0.05g$ were randomly distributed among the experimental tanks at a stocking density of 25 fish per tank. The experimental diets were provided thrice per day; on each occasion the fingerlings were given a weight of feed that amounted to 4% of fish biomass. At the end of the experimental period, we determined the growth performance, feed conversion ratio, hematological parameters, body composition and gut micro-flora parameters of the test fish. Inclusion of $5g\;kg^{-1}$Immunogen$^{(R)}$ in the diet significantly improved growth performance and feed utilization in comparison with controls. However, the whole-body composition of the fish was not significantly influenced by prebiotic inclusion. Inclusion of $5g\;kg^{-1}$ Immunogen$^{(R)}$ significantly increased the total bacterial and Lactobacillus counts in fish intestines, but these bacterial parameters were significantly negatively impacted by higher concentrations of the prebiotic. Red blood cells counts were increased by prebiotic dietary supplementation at concentrations of 5 and $10g\;kg^{-1}$ prebiotic. Glucose and cholesterol levels were elevated by administration of Immunogen$^{(R)}$. Thus, dietary supplementation with $5g\;kg^{-1}$ Immunogen$^{(R)}$ improved fingerling common carp growth performance and feed utilization, and beneficially influenced the gut microflora

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.612-619
• /
• 2004

A competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cdELISA) was developed for selective and rapid detection of a glycopeptide antibiotic, teicoplanin (TP). TP was conjugated to bovine serum albumin (BSA) for use as an immunogen. Repeated subcutaneous injections of 0.5 mg of the conjugate was effective in generating specific polyclonal antibody (PAb) toward TP in rabbits, as determined by cdELISA. TP-horseradish peroxidase conjugate (TP-HRP) was used as an enzyme marker. The cdELISA was developed based on a competition reaction between TP-BSA PAb and TP-HRP conjugate. The TP-BSA PAb was highly sensitive (detection limit, 0.3 ng/ml and specific toward teicoplanin, showing no cross-reactivity to other glycopeptide antibiotics including vancomycin. There were good correlations ($r^2$=0.84 and 0.76, respectively) between cdELISA and microbiological assay, and high-performance liquid chromatography. The cdELISA system developed in this work is expected to be useful not only for selective and rapid monitoring of TP but also for study of TP pharmacokinetics.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.495-502
• /
• 2004

Intimin, the product of eae gene in EHEC O157:H7, is required for intimate adherence. In this study, the C-terminaI region(281 amino acids) of the EHEC OI57:H7 intimin were expressed as a protein fusion with (His)$_6$ which was used to raise antiserum in rabbits. The antiserum reacted in western blot with a 94kDa outer membrane protein of EHEC O157:H7. It was observed that the antibody titers both in egg yolk and serum appeared in 2${\sim}$4 weeks after immunization with fusion protein. At the time of 8 weeks, the titre of egg yolk was found to be higher than that of sera. According to the results of neutralization test, chicken egg-yolk antibody(lgY) against the recombinant intimin strongly reacted to EHEC O157:H7. We conclude that a truncated recombinant intimin could be used as an immunogen to elicit antibody(lgY) against O157:H7.