Project description:The aim of the overall study was to investigate the development of immune competence in artificially reared dairy calves and in two breeds of naturally suckled beef calves over the first 168h of life. Dairy calves were fed 5% total body weight of colostrum, with beef calves monitored to ensure natural ingestion of colostrum. Blood samples were taken from all calves at 24h 48h 72h and 168h, and analysed for alterations to immunes genes.
Project description:Serotonin is a monoamine that regulates processes such as energy balance and immune function. Manipulating this pathway in growing dairy calves could promote growth and development by modulating functions and signaling pathways within key organs. In this study, we characterized the adipose and muscle transcriptome of pre-weaned calves with increased serotonin bioavailability through the elucidation of differentially expressed genes.
Project description:Bovine Herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) is a leading cause of Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) in young calves, which is responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to elucidate the whole blood mRNA transcriptomic response to an experimental challenge with BoHV-1, in dairy calves. Holstein-Friesian calves were either challenged by intranasal atomisation with BoHV1 virus (6.3 x 10^7/mL x 1.35mL) (n=12) or mock challenged with sterile phosphate buffered saline (n=6). Clinical signs were scored daily until euthanasia at day 6 post-challenge. Total RNA was extracted and sequenced from whole blood (100 bp paired-end). Sequence reads were aligned to the ARS-UCD1.2 bovine reference genome and differential gene expression analysis was performed using EdgeR. An MDS plot displayed an obvious separation between BoHV-1 challenged and control calves based on the gene expression changes in whole blood. There were 488 differentially expressed (DE) genes (p < 0.05, FDR < 0.1, fold change > 2) between the BoHV-1 challenged and control calves.
Project description:Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV) is a leading cause of Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) in young calves, which is responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality. Infection with BRSV induces global gene expression changes in respiratory tissues. If these changes are observed in tissues which are accessible in live animals, such as whole blood, they may be used as biomarkers of the disease. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to elucidate the whole blood transcriptomic response to an experimental challenge with BRSV, in dairy calves. Holstein-Friesian calves were either inoculated with virus (103.5 TCID50/ml x 15 ml) (n=12) or mock challenged with sterile phosphate buffered saline (n=6). Clinical signs were scored daily and whole blood was collected in Tempus RNA tubes immediately prior to euthanasia, at day 7 post-challenge. RNA was extracted from blood and sequenced (150 bp paired-end). Sequence reads were aligned to the UMD3.1 bovine reference genome and differential gene expression analysis was performed using EdgeR. An MDS plot displayed an obvious separation between BRSV challenged and control calves based on whole blood gene expression changes, despite an observed mild clinical manifestation of the disease. There were 281 differentially expressed (DE) genes (p < 0.05, FDR < 0.1, fold change > 2) between the BRSV challenged and control calves. The top enriched KEGG pathways and gene ontology terms were associated with viral infection and included “Influenza A”, “defense response to virus”, “regulation of viral life cycle” and “innate immune response”. Highly DE genes involved in these pathways are may be beneficial for the diagnosis of subclinical BRD from blood samples.
Project description:Our study would like to explore the different colostrum feeding time treatment, as well as the influence of host-microbial interaction on transcriptome profile and enriched functions of the two day old dairy calves.
Project description:Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV) is a cause of Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). The objective of this study was to elucidate the chromatin regions which were differentially open in the bronchial lymph nodes (BLN) of dairy calves experimentally challenged with BRSV, relative to unchallenged control calves. Holstein-Friesian calves were either challenged with BRSV inoculum (n=12) or mock challenged with PBS (n=6). Calves were euthanised on day 7 post-challenge. ATAC-Seq libraries were prepared from fresh BLN tissues and sequenced (75 bp paired-end). Sequence reads were aligned to the UMD3.1 reference genome and peak calling (q < 0.01) was performed with MACS2, employing the BAMPE model. Using Diffbind, 9,144 and 5,096 differentially accessible peaks were identified between BRSV challenged and control calves (P < 0.05, FDR < 0.05) using DeSeq2 and EdgeR, respectively. There were 169 and 110 genes previously found to be differentially expressed using RNA-Seq located within or up to 2kb upstream of the differentially accessible peaks identified by the DeSeq 2 and EdgeR analyses, respectively. There were 237 differentially accessible peaks positioned within 40 previously identified susceptibility loci for BRD. These open chromatin regions are likely involved in the gene transcriptional and regulatory response to infection by BRSV.