Preliminary Evaluation of the Effect of a Mushroom (Coriolus versicolor) Probiotic on Gene Expression in Goat Blood

Abstract Text: Gastrointestinal parasites pose a serious threat to the global goat industry due to resistance of parasites to anthelmintic drugs. Oral administration of anthelimintics may activate genes in peripheral blood and impact goat health and production. Coriolus versicolor is a mushroom with immunostimulant properties used as a dietary supplement as an immunostimulant. CorPet biomass (Mycology Research Laboratories Ltd, UK) is a mushroom (Coriolus versicolor) based feed that is being used as a probiotic in horses and small animals as an immunostimualnt. White-rot fungi such as Coriolus versicolorare efficient lignin degraders and have been studied for their ability to ferment different crop residues to produce improved animal feed for ruminants such as goats. Although the impact of white rot fungi on animal feed has been studied the effect of their use as feed supplements on the animal needs further study. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of aqueous extracts of CorPet on gene activation in adult Boer goats infected with gastrointestinal parasites. Following initial screening for infection, goats were assigned to three groups of five (n=15). Powdered CorPet was soaked in hot or cold water with stirring. Sterile filtered extracts were prepared. Goats were drenched daily with 10 mL of the hot (treatment I) or cold extract (treatment II) daily for a 4 week period, and a control group of five age matched goats received sterile water (treatment III). The groups were reversed for a further four weeks. Body weight, PCV, fecal sample and blood were collected in PAXgene tubes. Total RNA was isolated using the Zyomed kit. Haemonchus and coccidi were counted using a 3069 stereo microscope. There was no significant difference between the hot and cold treatment. There was an effect treatment on weight of the animals due to treatment (p>f 0.0041). The Nanodrop spectrophotometer was used to evaluate RNA concentration and purity. The average concentration and purities of the different treatment groups for each week revealed some variation over time. Administration of Corpet as an oral drench may stimulate gene expression in peripheral blood and may impact rumen microorganisms Further studies using more samples are needed to assess the impact on diversity and feed efficiency.

Keywords: Anthelmintics, Immunostimulant, CorPet.