A case of Slackia exigua bacteremia associated with pyometra in a patient with poor dentition

Prevalence of Oral Pathogen Slackia exigua among Clinical Orthodontic and Non-Orthodontic Saliva Samples

Slackia exigua (SE) is a recently identified intestinal microbe, which recent oral surveys suggest may be associated with oral diseases including caries and periodontal disease. Based upon the lack of information regarding this organism, the primary objective of this study was to determine the oral prevalence of this microbe and any potential associations with patient characteristics such as age, sex, or the presence of orthodontic appliances. This retrospective study involved the screening of an existing saliva repository composed of previously collected unstimulated clinical saliva samples. More specifically, N = 266 were identified and screened using a spectrophotometer at absorbances of A260 and A280 nm to determine their DNA purity and concentration. qPCR screening of these samples revealed a higher prevalence of Slackia exigua positive samples among pediatric patients (63.1%) compared with adults (36.9%) in this clinic population, p = 0.0007. In addition, higher percentages of Slackia exigua were observed among orthodontic patients (71.2%) compared with non-orthodontic patients (28.8%), p = 0.0001. These results did not vary by sex with nearly equal percentages of Slackia exigua positive males and females among adult and pediatric patients, as well as orthodontic and non-orthodontic samples. These results suggest a strong potential for association between the prevalence of this organism with age as well as orthodontic status, given that younger patients and those with orthodontic brackets (regardless of age) were most likely to harbor this pathogen in sufficient levels to be detected in saliva. More research will be needed to determine any associations with specific outcomes, such as caries or periodontal disease, among Slackia exigua positive patients within these specific populations.

Dietary Supplementation of Ferrous Glycine Chelate Improves Growth Performance of Piglets by Enhancing Serum Immune Antioxidant Properties, Modulating Microbial Structure and Its Metabolic Function in the Early Stage

The present research aimed to explore the effect of dietary ferrous glycine chelate supplementation on performance, serum immune-antioxidant parameters, fecal volatile fatty acids, and microbiota in weaned piglets. A total of 80 healthy piglets (weaned at 28 day with an initial weight of 7.43 ± 1.51 kg) were separated into two treatments with five replicates of eight pigs each following a completely randomized block design. The diet was a corn-soybean basal diet with 2,000 mg/kg ferrous glycine chelates (FGC) or not (Ctrl). The serum and fecal samples were collected on days 14 and 28 of the experiment. The results indicated that dietary FGC supplementation improved (p < 0.05) the average daily gain and average daily feed intake overall, alleviated (p < 0.05) the diarrhea rate of piglets at the early stage, enhanced (p < 0.05) the levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase on day 14 and lowered (p < 0.05) the MDA level overall. Similarly, the levels of growth hormone and serum iron were increased (p < 0.05) in the FGC group. Moreover, dietary FGC supplementation was capable of modulating the microbial community structure of piglets in the early period, increasing (p < 0.05) the abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria Tezzerella, decreasing (p < 0.05) the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria Slackia, Olsenella, and Prevotella as well as stimulating (p < 0.05) the propanoate and butanoate metabolisms. Briefly, dietary supplemented FGC ameliorates the performance and alleviated the diarrhea of piglets by enhancing antioxidant properties, improving iron transport, up-regulating the growth hormone, modulating the fecal microbiota, and increasing the metabolism function. Therefore, FGC is effective for early iron supplementation and growth of piglets and may be more effective in neonatal piglets.