Garlic for Sustainable Production of Hair Sheep in the US

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-282-8_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Garlic Extracts; Protein Secretion; Sheep; RNA; DNA; Gene Expression

Abstract

St. Croix sheep are hair sheep whose production characteristics make them suitable for low-input, sustainable production systems. They are parasite resistant and can live in a wide variety of climates. Natural immune modulators such as garlic can enhance animal production, health, and well-being. Garlic (Allium sativa) is recognized as an eco-friendly alternative to antibiotics and contributes to a reduction in methane emissions. The present study was carried out to determine the effect of garlic extracts on global gene transcription, protein secretion, and gut health indicators in St. Croix sheep. Clinically, healthy adult, age-matched non-pregnant St. Croix sheep (n=12) from the NC A& T University farm were divided into a treatment group (n=6) and a control group (n=6). The treatment group was drenched with 5 ml garlic (Garlic Barrier (Glendale, CA) concentrate diluted 1:1 with sterile distilled water (10 ml total). The control group was drenched with 10ml sterile distilled water for four weeks. The body weight, body condition, FAMACHA scores, and blood and fecal samples were collected weekly. The fecal microbial DNA was evaluated using the fast DNA stool kit (Qiagen, CA). Total plasma protein was analyzed using the BCA assay. Total RNA was isolated using Trizol and the concentration was determined using a nanodrop spectrophotometer. Data were analyzed using t-test where p≤0.05 (SAS9.4 SAS Institute Cary NC). Garlic has shown no significant effect on gut microbial DNA abundance, increased total protein concentration (p<0.004) in the treatment group, and RNA concentration gradually decreased over time in the treatment group compared to the control (P<0.05). Oral administration of garlic has pleiotropic effects and no observed adverse effects. Determination of garlic’s effect on specific gene expression and protein function will contribute to its sustainable use as an alternative anti-helminthic and immune modulator in sheep.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - SreeNavya Inupala
AU  - Sowmya Jagana
AU  - Priyanka Pande
AU  - M. Rassel Uzzaman
AU  - B. Saivinay
AU  - Mulumebet Worku
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/22
TI  - Garlic for Sustainable Production of Hair Sheep in the US
BT  - Proceedings of the National Conference on Next-Generation Sustainable Technologies for Small-Scale Producers (NGST 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 117
EP  - 125
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-282-8_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-282-8_14
ID  - Inupala2023
ER  -