Abstract
As one of the main environmental stressors commonly found in closed pig houses, ammonia poses high risks to the well-being of humans and animals. This study is aimed at assessing the toxicity of ammonia exposure (80 ppm for 12 days) on the nasal mucosa in piglets. Firstly, we found that after ammonia exposure, the number of white blood cells significantly increased and the serum levels of cytokine IL-4 were significantly decreased. Then, histological analyses showed significant thickening of nasal mucosa and excessive mucus production in the exposure group. Finally, RNA-seq analyses demonstrated that the ammonia exposure disturbed the transcriptome of nasal mucosa which revealed 176 upregulated genes and 426 downregulated genes. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of the DEGs showed that the upregulated genes were mainly related to neutrophil chemotaxis and immune response, while 80 out of the 426 downregulated genes including CCDCs, CFAPs, DNAHs, and TEKTs were enriched in the microtubule cytoskeleton and cilium morphogenesis/movement. All these results indicated that ammonia exposure induces nasal mucosal hyperplasia and cilia dysfunction, as well as a systemic inflammatory response in piglets. These findings provide new evidence for understanding the damage mechanism of ammonia on the nasal mucosa.
Highlights
Intensive farming of livestock is usually confronted with the problem of poor air quality
Since haematological parameters are good indicators of the physiological status of farm animals, we firstly compared these parameters in piglets of the exposure group with those of the NC group and found that the total numbers of white blood cells (p < 0:01), lymphocytes (p < 0:05), and monocytes (p < 0:01) were all significantly increased in the exposure group (Figure 1(a))
The results showed that ammonia exposure did not change the protein levels of IL-10 and IFN-γ
Summary
Intensive farming of livestock is usually confronted with the problem of poor air quality. Ammonia is usually found in high concentrations, which seriously affects the indoor air quality in closed pig houses, in winter when the ventilation is largely inadequate [1]. Pigs showed decreases in weight gain and food consumption when exposed to 100 ppm ammonia for 4–5 weeks [6]. When broilers were exposed to high concentration of ammonia for several weeks, they showed decreased feed intake and daily weight gain, because exposure to ammonia may trigger oxidative stress and autophagy and interfere with the nutrient absorption and immune function of the small intestinal mucosa and result in cardiac damage of broilers [8, 9]
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