Manfred Mielenz

Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) can accumulate minerals, including P and Ca, from sewage sludge recyclates (SSR), and may therefore be used as a protein- and mineral-enriched component in poultry rations. In this study, the effects of supplementing SSR mineral-enriched BSFL on broiler performance and health were investigated. BSFL were grown on a f...

The recycling of minerals is crucial for the future circular agriculture. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) can accumulate minerals in their body. This study investigated the effects of adding mineral-enriched BSFL, grown on substrates containing sewage sludge recyclates (SSR), to broiler feed to reintroduce minerals from waste streams currently subj...

Global rock phosphorus sources are finite and expensive. New recycling technologies (e.g. Ash2Phos) are emerging. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) accumulate minerals from sewage sludge recylates (SSR). Mineral-enriched BSFL can make up to 20% of broiler rations.

There is a growing interest in the ability of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae (BSFL) to convert low-value organic residues into high-value products. This leads to more publications with conversion data for various organic resources. However, these results are rarely comparable between laboratories due to differences in study protocols....

Phosphorous (P) resources are finite. Sewage sludge recyclates (SSR) are not only of interest as plant fertilizer but also as potential source of minerals in animal nutrition. However, besides P and calcium (Ca), SSR contain heavy metals. Under EU legislation, the use of SSR derivatives in animal feed is not permitted, but given the need to improve...

Mineral and heavy metal accumulation in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae (BSFL) is of growing interest. The bioaccumulation of elements in BSFL is usually assessed by a bioaccumulation factor (BAF), which is the ratio between the concentration of an element in the organism and in its feeding substrate. Recently, a new index, i.e. bioacc...

Oxidative stress and inflammation, as natural parts of metabolic adaptations during the transition from late gestation to early lactation, are critical indicators of dairy cows' metabolic health. This study was designed to investigate the effects of abomasal infusion of essential fatty acids (EFA), particularly α-linolenic acid, and conjugated lino...

In recent years, interest in the larvae of black soldier fly (BSF) ( Hermetia illucens ) as a sustainable protein resource for livestock feed has increased considerably. However, knowledge on the nutritional and physiological aspects of this insect, especially compared to other conventional farmed animals is scarce. This review presents a critical...

Whole BSFL can be fed to broilers not only for decreasing soybean-protein in diets but also to improve animal welfare. How much whole BSFL could be fed to broilers is however unknown. We assessed apparent interest of broilers in eating BSFL when offered with either 10% (L10), 20% (L20) or 30% (L30) of voluntary feed intake (FI) of control chickens...

Meal of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL), which requires extraction of protein and fat, is a novel protein source for poultry, while unprocessed whole BSFL could even directly be fed to chickens. Newly hatched Ross-308 chicks (n = 252) received whole BSFL at 10% (L10), 20% (L20) or 30% (L30) of voluntary feed intake (FI) of control chickens (CON) th...

Soybean meal in poultry diets can be replaced by defatted black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) meal without affecting performance [1]. However, whole BSFL could be fed to chickens directly without processing [2]. We investigated the effects of different inclusion levels of unprocessed BSFL in broiler diets on metabolism, immune status, carcass character...

Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) are known for their high Ca content [1]. They are one of only a few insect species to contain a wide calcium (Ca):phosphorus (P) ratio of up to 8.2:1 [2] [3]. We hypothesized that inclusion of up to 30% unprocessed BSFL in broiler diets have a positive influence on mineralization, in particular the ash, Ca and P cont...

The composition of breast milk is influenced by maternal nutrition and plays a pivotal role in offspring development. Among others, milk oligosaccharides (OS) promote the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria, modulate host-epithelial immune response, and prevent pathogen adhesion. Prebiotics are indigestible dietary fiber to the host, serve as...

Mastitis has a high incidence in dairy cows. Experimental infection with Escherichia coli increased the number of leukocytes in milk and the gene expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in mammary gland tissues. A link between CXCR4 expression and lipopolysaccharide sensing was demonstrated in other species using in vitro models. The receptor th...

Prebiotic supplements and high-protein (HP) diets reduce body weight and modulate intestinal microbiota. Our aim was to elucidate the combined effect of an inulin/oligofructose (FOS) and HP diet on body weight gain, energy metabolism and faecal microbiota. Forty male C57BL/6NCrl mice were fed a control (C) diet for 2 weeks and allocated to a C or H...

Dairy cows are exposed to increased inflammatory processes in the transition period from late pregnancy to early lactation. Essential fatty acids (EFA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) are thought to modulate the inflammatory response in dairy cows. The present study investigated the effects of a combined EFA and CLA infusion on the fatty acid (F...

Einfluss einer maternalen Supplementierung mit 10% Inulin/FOS zu einer Hochfett-oder Hochproteindiät in Mäusen auf den Trächtigkeitsverlauf und die Entwicklung der Nachkommen F Koch1; M Langhammer2; E Wytrwat2; A Tuchscherer2; HM Hammon1; M Mielenz1; B Kuhla1; CC Metges1 1Institute of Nutritional Physiology "Oskar Kellner", Nutritional imbalances o...

Impact of a maternal supplementation of 10% inulin/FOS to a high-protein or high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation in mice on body weight gain, glucose tolerance, mammary gland development and offspring body weight

Diets of dairy cows are often based on maize silage (MS), delivering lower amounts of n-3 fatty acids (FA) compared to grass silage-based diets. The fatty acid composition of the cell membrane can affect the cell function. We evaluated the effects of an MS-based diet on bovine red blood cell (RBC) membrane FA composition and dietary effects on cont...

Prebiotics such as inulin and oligofructose (FOS) are non-digestible nutritional compounds, which increase gastric filling, intestinal motility and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. FOS supplementation to a high-fat but not control diet prevented body weight gain and exerted positive effects on insulin resistance and lipid metabolism (1). H...

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is evolving as metabolic regulatory protein. Albeit mostly considered in only pathological conditions related to excess energy intake resulting in obesity and insulin resistance, PEDF is likely to be involved in other physiological processes such as the homeorhetic adaptation of metabolism to lactation. We a...

We hypothesized that plasma adipokine concentrations of early-lactation dairy cows are related to body condition score (BCS) at calving and to markers of metabolic status of the cow. As part of a larger study with 117 multiparous Holstein dairy cows, which had high BCS (BCS >4.0) or normal BCS (3.25-3.5) at calving, 22 cows were randomly selected (...

The regulation of growth hormone (GH) release during prenatal development and during early postnatal life is not entirely clarified. In this study plasma GH concentrations in pigs with inherited pseudo vitamin D deficiency type I (PDDR-I), which regularly show growth retardation, were compared during ontogeny with unaffected pigs of the same breed...

Free fatty acid receptors (FFAR) play significant roles in various physiological processes, including energy metabolism, through interaction with their ligands, fatty acids. To determine whether the receptors FFAR1 and FFAR2 are involved in the regulation of liver metabolism during the peripartal period, we selected 13 German Holstein multiparous d...

The pre-weaning period is critical for calf health and growth, and intensive milk feeding programs may assist postnatal development by improving body growth and organ maturation. The aim of the present work was to study the effects of ad libitum milk replacer (MR) feeding on the growth, metabolic adaptation, health, and immune status of newborn cal...

Complete data set of parameters regarding growth and health as shown in Fig 1. (PDF)

Complete data set of data after harvest as shown in Table 3. (PDF)

Cuts indicating the German cutting schema [39]. (PDF)

Complete data set of plasma concentrations of metabolites and hormones as shown in Figs 2 to 5. (PDF)

Complete data set of hepatic mRNA expression. (PDF)

Data on nutrient sensing by free fatty acid receptors (FFAR1, FFAR2, FFAR3, FFAR4) and hydroxycarboxylic acid receptors (HCAR1, HCAR2) are increasing for human or rodent models. Both receptor families link intestinal fermentation by the microbiota and energy metabolism with cellular responses. Therefore, this finding provides a link that is indepen...

Previous studies showed that hcavy milk-fed caIves often develop problems with glucose homeostasis and do not utilise dietary carbohydrates for body fat deposition. This suggests that calves may lack the metabolic capacity for synthesizing fatty acids from glucose. Poor glucose utilisation for growth may aIso be explained by the large supply of die...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate possible effects of quercetin (Q) on liver lipid metabolism and antioxidative status in periparturient dairy cows. The periparturient period is associated with enormous metabolic changes for dairy cows. Energy needs for incipient lactation are too high to be balanced by feed intake, leading to negative ener...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate possible effects of quercetin (Q) on liver lipid metabolism and antioxidative status in periparturient dairy cows. The periparturient period is associated with enormous metabolic changes for dairy cows. Energy needs for incipient lactation are too high to be balanced by feed intake, leading to negative ener...

The transition period in dairy cows is characterized by major changes in glucose and adipose tissue metabolism. The Sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) PPARγ co-activator 1α (PPARGC1A) axis might be related to the adiponectin (ADIPOQ) system to orchestrate the regulation of these processes. We aimed to assess the mRNA abundance of the aforementioned components in on...

The transition from pregnancy to lactation is characterized by major changes in glucose and adipose tissue metabolism. Anti- and prolipolytic pathways mediated via the hydroxycarboxylic acid receptors 1 (HCAR1) and 2 (HCAR2) and tumor necrosis factor-α receptor 1 (TNFR1), as well as the adipokines apelin and resistin, are likely involved in regulat...

We recently showed that the mRNA expression of genes encoding for specific nutrient sensing receptors, namely the free fatty acid receptors (FFAR) 1, 2, 3, and the hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor (HCAR) 2, undergo characteristic changes during the transition from late pregnancy to lactation in certain adipose tissues (AT) of dairy cows. We hypothes...

It is well observed that feeding energy-dense diets in dairy cows during the dry period can cause metabolic imbalances after parturition. Especially dairy cows with high body condition score (BCS) and fed an energy-dense diet were prone to develop production diseases due to metabolic disturbances postpartum. An experiment was conducted to determine...

High ambient temperatures have severe adverse effects on biological functions of high-yielding dairy cows. The metabolic adaption to heat stress was examined in 14 German Holsteins transition cows assigned to two groups, one heat-stressed (HS) and one pair-fed (PF) at the level of HS. After 6 days of thermoneutrality and ad libitum feeding (P1), co...

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), somatolactin and leptin are involved in growth regulation and energy metabolism in fish. We herein focused on serum IGF-1 concentration analysed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in restrictively fed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The animals were fed a high-fat/low-protein diet at daily feed increases...

Adipose tissue is an endocrine compartment that plays an important role in immune defence by producing and releasing a wide range of proteins, including acute phase proteins (APPs). The liver is the main organ of APP synthesis, although extrahepatic production has also been reported. In the present study, expression of two APPs in dairy cattle, lip...

The transition period in dairy cows (3 weeks prepartum until 3 weeks postpartum) is associated with substantial mobilization of energy stores, which is often associated with metabolic diseases. Nicotinic acid (NA) is an antilipolytic and lipid-lowering compound used to treat dyslipidaemia in humans, and it also reduces non-esterified fatty acids...

Abstract Text: Apelin, a 77 amino acid preproprotein, which is also known as an adipokine is suggested to play a physiological role in glucose metabolism. It stimulates glucose uptake by adipose tissue in humans and mice, whereas lipolysis in humans is not affected. This might lead to a decreasing lipolysis during the transition period in cattle...

Abstract Text: Chemerin is thought to be involved in controlling immune responses as a chemoattractant for antigen-presenting cells and has anti-inflammatory as well as pro-inflammatory functions; the latter are linked with obesity and insulin resistance. It is highly expressed as prochemerin in liver and adipose tissue and was recently identified...

Abstract Text: The mRNA expression of adiponectin (ADIPOQ) and its receptors ADIPOR1/2 in adipose tissue (AT) decreases with the onset of lactation in dairy cows; the serum concentrations of ADIPOQ have also been demonstrated to drop during the lactation-induced negative energy balance (NEB) but not during feed-restriction induced NEB at later st...

Abstract Text: Chemerin (RARRES2) is involved in adipogenesis and in mediating fat mobilization in mature adipocytes, exerting its effects via its receptor ChemR23. In humans, circulating chemerin levels are regulated by the energy intake. We hypothesized that the expression of RARRES2 or ChemR23 in subcutaneous (SC) and retroperitoneal (RP) adip...

The free fatty acid receptor (FFA) 1, FFA2, FFA3 and hydroxy-carboxylic acid receptor (HCA)2 are G protein-coupled receptors, acting as energy and metabolic sensors. Herein, we characterized the tissue-specific mRNA abundance of genes encoding for these receptors at different stages of lactation. In addition, potential effects of supplementation wi...

Adiponectin and intracellular 5'adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) are important modulators of glucose and fat metabolism. Cinnamon exerts beneficial effects by improving insulin sensitivity and blood lipids, e.g., through increasing adiponectin concentrations and AMPK activation. The underlying mechanism is unknown. The Gi/Go-...

In dairy cows the milk associated energy output in early lactation exceeds the input via voluntary feed intake. To spare glucose for mammary lactose synthesis, peripheral insulin sensitivity (IS) is reduced and fat mobilization is stimulated. For these processes a link between IS and the endocrine functions of adipose tissue (AT) is likely; we thus...

Serum amyloid A3 (SAA3) is the predominant SAA isoform secreted by mammary epithelial cells in dairy cows; it is also expressed in bovine adipose tissue (AT). The adipokine SAA3 is linked to obesity and insulin resistance of AT and the respective inflammatory response, at least in mice. Dietary treatment with conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) reporte...

Aquaglyceroporins act as channel proteins and regulate water and glycerol exchange through cell membranes. The aquaglyceroporin aquaporin-7 (AQP7) is abundantly expressed in adipose tissue (AT) and regulates the release of glycerol produced by lipolysis. We aimed to investigate the expression of AQP7 mRNA during lactation in subcutaneous (s.c.) and...

Adiponectin (AdipoQ) is an adipokine mainly secreted by white fatty tissue, playing a major role in energy homeostasis and insulin sensitivity. For cattle, AdipoQ data are largely limited to mRNA expression; to our knowledge, valid information about the AdipoQ protein in bovine tissues and body fluids is not available. Therefore, we have developed...

In addition to its role in energy storage, adipose tissue (AT) is an important endocrine organ and it secretes adipokines. The adipokine adiponectin improves insulin sensitivity by activation of its receptors AdipoR1 and AdipoR2. Lipolysis in AT is downregulated by the G-protein coupled receptor (GPR109A), which binds the endogenous ligand β-hydrox...

In two trials, Holstein cows were allocated to a conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, Lutrell®, BASF, Germany) or control (Silafat®, BASF) fat supplement at 100 g/day from d 1 to 182 post partum (p.p.) in trial 1 and d 1 to 105 p.p. in trial 2. Trial 1: 21 multiparous cows at d 21 ante partum (a.p.) and d 1, 21, 70, 105, 182, 196, 224, 252 p.p. were biop...

Selection of stable reference genes (REF) is important in real-time PCR data normalization. Bovine tissues such as the mammary gland, liver, muscle, and s.c. fat from the tail head have been thoroughly explored for stable REF, whereas fewer reports exist for other fat depots. Therefore, a suitable combination of REF was tested for different tissues...

The present study aimed to characterize serum haptoglobin (Hp) concentrations throughout an entire lactation period in both primi- and multiparous cows and to compare them to the Hp mRNA expression in liver and - in view of Hp being potentially an adipokine - also in different subcutaneous (s.c.) and visceral fat depots. In addition, potential anti...

The present study aimed to characterize serum haptoglobin (Hp) concentrations throughout an entire lactation period in both primi- and multiparous cows and to compare them to the Hp mRNA expression in liver and - in view of Hp being potentially an adipokine - also in different subcutaneous (s.c.) and visceral fat depots. In addition, potential anti...

White adipose tissue (AT) has been considered for a long time as the store house of energy and this tissue is now recognized as an active endocrine organ that communicates with the brain and peripheral tissues by secreting a wide range of hormones and cytokines collectively termed adipokines; the adipokine family includes also several acute phase p...

The acute phase protein haptoglobin (Hp) exerts immune modulating functions in the innate and adaptive immune system. In pigs, serum Hp concentrations are linked to impaired growth performance. There is little information on Hp in newborn piglets and the onset of endogenous Hp synthesis. In the first experiment we analyzed Hp concentrations in colo...

The present study was aimed to determine the association between metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3), transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) and collagen type X alpha I (COL10A1) gene polymorphisms with traits related to leg weakness in pigs. Three hundred Duroc × Pietrain cross breds (DuPi) and 299 pigs of a commercial population (CP) were used for the...

Ruminants rely on short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) as principal energy source. Herein, we compared the effects of propionate, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and insulin on mRNA abundance of energy balance-related genes by short-term incubation (4 h) in bovine subcutaneous (SC) and retroperitoneal (RP) adipose tissue (AT) explants in vitro. Propionate either...

Leg weakness issues are a great concern for the pig breeding industry, especially with regard to animal welfare. Traits associated with leg weakness are partly influenced by the genetic background of the animals but the genetic basis of these traits is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) aff...

Among dietary components, conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) have attracted considerable attention as weight loss supplements in the Western world because they reduce fat stores and increase muscle mass. However, a number of adverse effects are also ascribed to the intake of CLAs such as aggravation of insulin resistance and the risk of developing di...