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Eight ruminally cannulated crossbred beef heifers (427 ± 41.2 kg, body weight) were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square to determine the effects of feeding a condensed tannin (CT) extract with high protein diets containing corn dried distillers grains and solubles (DG) on ruminal fermentation, nutrient digestibility, and route of nitrogen (N) excretion. Dietary treatments included [dry matter (DM) basis]: 0 (0DG), 20 (20DG), and 40% DG (40DG), and 40% DG with 2.5% CT extract (1.33% CT) from Acacia mearnsii (40DGCT). The DG and CT extract were substituted for grain in a barley-based diet that contained 91% concentrate and 9% silage (DM basis) and was fed as a total mixed ration once daily. The crude protein concentrations of the diets were 12.9, 16.8, 20.4, and 20.5% for 0DG, 20DG, 40DG, and 40DGCT, respectively. Periods were 5 wk with 2 wk for transition to the DG level of the diets, 1 wk for adaptation to CT, and 2 wk for measurements. Feed offered and refused were measured daily. Total urine and fecal output were collected daily for 4 d consecutively. Data were analyzed using a mixed linear model with diet and period as fixed effects and square and animal within square as random effects. There was no effect (P ≥ 0.22) of CT on DM intake, but 40% DG in the diet (40DG and 40DGCT) decreased (P ≤ 0.015) DM intake compared with 20DG. As a result, nitrogen (N) intake was not different (P > 0.15) among heifers fed 20DG, 40DG, and 40DGCT (313 g N/d) and was less (P ≤ 0.001) for heifers fed 0DG (220 ± 18 g N/d). Apparent total tract N digestibility was less (P ≤ 0.001) in heifers fed 40DGCT (70.6 ± 1.07%) compared with to 0DG, 20DG, and 40DG (78.4%). There was no effect (P = 0.84) of CT (40DGCT vs. 40DG) on the total N output, however, feeding 40DGCT decreased (P ≤ 0.001) the excretion of total urinary N and urea N in urine by 17 and 21%, respectively, compared with heifers fed 40DG and was equivalent (P ≥ 0.12) to the amount excreted by heifers fed 20DG. The reduction of N digestibility reflected the protein binding effects of CT within the gastrointestinal tract and the shift in excess N excretion from labile urea N in urine to bound NDIN and ADIN in feces (P ≤ 0.001) in heifers fed 40DGCT compared with 40DG. Supplementation of CT in high protein diets fed to feedlot cattle reduced urinary N and increased the capture of N in manure to potentially lesson the loss of N as ammonia and provide opportunities for improved nutrient management of beef production.

Sustainability of animal agriculture requires efficient use of energy and nitrogen (N) by ruminants fed high-forage diets. Thus, there is a need to decrease methane (CH4) emissions and prevent excessive N release into the environment. Therefore, this experiment examined the long-term effects of feeding hydrolyzable tannin (HT) with or without condensed tannin (CT) on animal performance, rumen fermentation, N use, and CH4 production in beef cattle fed a high-forage diet. A total of 75 weaned crossbred steers (292 ± 4.1 kg) were grouped by body weight (BW), housed in individual pens, and randomly assigned to 1 of 5 dietary treatments (15 animals/treatment) in a completely random design. The animals were fed a basal diet of alfalfa:barley silages (50:50; dry matter [DM] basis) with a crude protein content of 17.1% and supplemented with HT extract (chestnut, CN) or a combination (50:50) of HT and CT extracts (quebracho, Q) in a powdered form at different levels of dietary DM. The treatments for determining animal performance and N use were control (no tannin), 0.25% CN, 1.5% CN, combination of CN and Q at 0.125% each (0.25% CNQ), and CN and Q at 0.75% each (1.5% CNQ) of dietary DM. The treatments for the CH4 measurement were control, 1.5% CN, and 1.5% CNQ of dietary DM. The first 84 d of the study were used to measure animal performance, rumen fermentation, and N use, and the next 30 d were used to measure CH4 emissions with the tracer gas technique. There were no effects of treatment on DM intake (DMI), BW, average daily gain, and gain: feed (P ≥ 0.10). The plasma urea N concentration was greater (P < 0.05) for 1.5% CN and 1.5% CNQ than those fed 0.25% CNQ (120.9 and 120.4 vs. 111.7 mg/L, respectively), but not different (P > 0.05) from animals fed control or 0.25% CN (117.2 and 117.5 mg/L, respectively). Tannin inclusion did not affect rumen pH, total volatile fatty acid concentration, proportions of acetate and propionate, and total protozoa populations (P ≥ 0.16). Tannin, irrespective of type or dose, decreased (P < 0.01) ruminal ammonia concentration. Tannin type and dose did not affect (P = 0.54) daily CH4 production (154 ± 5.9 g/d) but 1.5% CNQ tended to decrease CH4 yield compared with control (20.6 vs. 22.0 g/kg DMI; P = 0.094). HT from CN alone or in combination with CT from Q can be added at a low (0.25% DM) or high (1.5% DM) level to a forage-based diet to decrease ruminal ammonia concentration in growing beef cattle fed a high-protein diet without adverse effects on animal performance. A combination of HT and CT at a concentration of 1.5% dietary DM also tended to decrease CH4 emissions without negatively affecting performance.

Abstract Cattle need physically effective fiber to promote rumination and maintain rumen health, but economics favor the use of low-roughage feedlot diets. The study investigated the optimum barley silage proportion in barley-based finishing diets. Apparent total-tract digestibility (4-d total fecal collection), chewing behavior (6-d video recording), ruminal pH (6-d indwelling pH recording), and fermentation (1 day, sampling 0, 3, 6, 12, and 18 h postfeeding), short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) absorption (washed reticulo-rumen technique), gastrointestinal tract barrier function (marker infusion), and blood variables (catheters) were measured. Eight ruminally fistulated crossbred beef heifers (653 ± 44.2 kg; mean starting body weight [BW] ± SD) were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with 28-d periods. Dietary treatments were 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% of dietary dry matter (DM) as barley silage, with diets containing 80%, 76%, 72%, and 68% barley grain, respectively. Increasing silage proportion decreased dietary starch content from 49.0% to 43.1% DM, while neutral detergent content increased from 22.7% to 25.1% DM. Silage proportion had no effect on DM intake, but apparent DM digestibility decreased quadratically (86.0%, 82.1%, 81.1%, 79.5% for the four diets, respectively; P < 0.001). Although, silage proportion had no effect on eating activity, rumination time increased quadratically (246, 289, 302, 316 min/d; P = 0.04). Increased silage proportion increased minimum (5.07, 5.27, 5.29, 5.41; quadratic, P = 0.011) and mean (5.61, 5.87, 5.93, 5.95; quadratic, P = 0.007) ruminal pH, and there was a quadratic (P ≤ 0.047) decrease in duration and area under the pH acidosis threshold curves of 5.8, 5.5, and 5.2. Although increasing silage proportion decreased ruminal acidosis, it was not completely eliminated even with a diet containing 12% silage DM. SCFA concentration in ruminal fluid was not affected by diet, but silage proportion quadratically (P ≤ 0.088) increased ruminal acetate:propionate. There was no effect of diet on absolute or fractional rates of absorption of acetate, propionate, butyrate or total SCFA, and no effect on gastrointestinal barrier function or blood measurements. In conclusion, responses to roughage level were mostly quadratic with greatest improvements in acidosis variables between 0% and 4% barley silage, with incremental improvements with further increases in silage levels. The study showed a trade-off between maximizing digestibility and energy intake to promote animal performance and minimizing the risk of acidosis.

Pooled data from 19 prospective studies showed that after adjustments for age, physical activity, alcohol consumption, education, and marital status, both overweight and obesity were associated with increased mortality, which was lowest with a BMI between 20 and 25. Two thirds of the adult population in the United States and at least half the populations of many other developed countries are currently overweight or obese. 1 , 2 Although it is well established that obese people — defined as having a body-mass index (BMI) (the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) of 30.0 or more — have increased death rates from heart disease, stroke, and many specific cancers, 3 the strength of the relationship between a high BMI and all-cause mortality remains uncertain, as does the optimal BMI with respect to mortality. Some studies suggest that . . .

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of feeding a condensed tannin extract (CT) on dry matter intake (DMI), growth performance, carcass traits, and NH3-N emissions of beef feedlot cattle fed high-protein barley-based finishing diets. In Exp. 1, 36 crossbred steers (346 ± 4.2 kg) were individually fed 4 diets with 20% corn dried distillers grains (DG) and increasing concentrations of a CT extract from Acacia mearnsii (black wattle) at 0%, 1.2%, 2.4%, and 3.5% of DM (9 steers per diet) for 52 d. The DMI was not affected at 1.2% and 2.4% but tended (P = 0.08, quadratic effect) to decrease at 3.5% CT extract. There was no effect (P ≥ 0.12) of increasing CT extract on ADG, but G:F tended (P = 0.09) to decrease linearly. In Exp. 2, 148 crossbred steers (457 ± 3.8 kg) were allocated to 16 pens with 4 pens per treatment in a completely randomized design and fed for 83 d. The 4 dietary treatments included 0% corn DG (0DG), 20% DG (20DG), 40% DG (40DG), and 40% DG with 2.5% CT extract (40DGCT) and contained 13.3, 15.9, 20.4, and 19.4% CP, respectively. All cattle were weighed, and blood was collected from 5 steers per pen every 3 wk. Ammonia emissions were measured in four 3-wk periods using the integrated horizontal flux technique with passive NH3 samplers from 2 pens of cattle fed 0DG and 20DG (Period 1), 40DG and 40DGCT (Period 2), 0DG and 40DG (Period 3), and 0DG and 40DGCT (Period 4). There was no effect (P ≥ 0.15) of diet on final body weight (621 ± 7.1 kg), DMI (11.9 ± 0.25 kg/d), ADG (1.98 ± 0.07 kg/d), G:F (166 ± 5.4 g/kg), and carcass traits. Plasma urea N (PUN) increased (P < 0.001) from 0DG to 40DG (113 to 170 ± 6.0 mg N/L) and was reduced (P < 0.001) by 40DGCT (146 mg N/L) compared with 40DG and tended (P = 0.09) to be reduced compared with steers fed 20DG (153 mg N/L). Ammonia-N emissions were greater from cattle fed 40DG [113.7 vs. 70.8 ± 4.57 g N/(steer·d), P = 0.003] and tended to be greater from cattle fed 20DG [51.3 vs. 26.3 ± 11.2 g N/(steer·d), P = 0.11] compared with 0DG. Cattle fed 40DGCT tended to have lower NH3-N emissions compared with cattle fed 40DG [72.7 vs. 95.1 ± 9.3 g N/(steer·d), P = 0.09 and 20.5 vs. 26.5 ± 2.64% N intake, P = 0.11]. Feeding 2.5% CT to beef feedlot cattle fed a high-protein diet had no detrimental effect on performance, reduced PUN indicating lower urinary urea N excretion, and lowered NH3-N emissions by 23%.

INTRODUCTION Evidence is limited on the role of mid‐life Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet in late‐life subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs). METHODS We included 5116 women (mean age in 1985–1991: 46 years) from the New York University Women's Health Study. SCCs were assessed from 2018 to 2020 (mean age: 79 years) by a 6‐item questionnaire. RESULTS Compared to women in the bottom quartile of the DASH scores, the odds ratio (OR) for having two or more SCCs was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.70–0.99) for women in the top quartile of DASH scores at baseline (P for trend = 0.019). The association was similar with multiple imputation and inverse probability weighting to account for potential selection bias. The inverse association was stronger in women without a history of cancer (P for interaction = 0.003). DISCUSSION Greater adherence to the DASH diet in mid‐life was associated with lower prevalence of late‐life SCCs in women.

Background Midkine is a heparin-binding growth factor that is overexpressed in most human malignancies, including breast cancer. While elevated midkine levels have been associated with tumor progression and aging, its role as a predictive biomarker for breast cancer risk in healthy individuals remains unclear. We previously showed that higher midkine expression in estrogen receptor-positive (ER +) breast cancer in younger (< 55) women is associated with shorter disease-free survival. We investigated whether serum midkine levels in premenopausal women are associated with subsequent risk of ER + breast cancer. Methods We conducted a prospective, nested case–control study within the New York University Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS). Serum midkine levels were measured in baseline blood samples from 249 premenopausal women who developed ER + breast cancer more than 10 years after blood collection and 249 matched controls. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) across quartiles and continuous midkine levels, adjusting for key breast cancer risk factors. Results Higher circulating midkine levels were associated with a marginally statistically significant lower risk of ER + breast cancer. Compared to the lowest quartile, women in the highest quartile had an OR of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.30–0.99; P for trend = 0.10). A doubling in midkine was associated with a 34% reduction in risk (OR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.42–1.02). The inverse association was generally consistent across subgroups. Conclusion These findings suggest that higher baseline serum midkine levels in premenopausal women are associated with a reduced long-term risk of ER + breast cancer. This challenges prior assumptions about midkine’s uniformly pro-tumorigenic role and suggests it may be a context-dependent biomarker in breast cancer development.

Abstract High grain diets are fed to finishing beef cattle to maximize animal performance in a cost-effective manner. However, a small amount of roughage is incorporated in finishing diets to help prevent ruminal acidosis, although few studies have examined optimum roughage inclusion level in barley-based diets. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of roughage proportion in barley-based finishing diets on growth performance, feeding behavior, and carcass traits of feedlot cattle. Crossbred beef steers (n = 160; mean body weight ± SD, 349.7 ± 21.4 kg) were allocated to 20 pens that were assigned randomly to four dietary treatments (five pens of eight steers per treatment). The treatment diets contained barley silage at 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% of dietary dry matter (DM). The remainder of the diets (DM basis) consisted of 80%, 76%, 72%, and 68% barley grain, respectively, 15% corn dried distiller’s grains, 5% mineral and vitamin supplement, and 32 mg monensin/kg diet DM. The diets were fed as total mixed rations for ad libitum intake (minimum of 5% refusal) once per day. Cattle were weighed on 2 consecutive days at the start and end of the experiment and on 1 d every 3 wk throughout the experiment (124 d). Two pens for each treatment group were equipped with an electronic feeding system (GrowSafe Systems Ltd., Calgary, Alberta) to monitor feed intake and feeding behavior of individual cattle. The data for dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), gain:feed (G:F) ratio, and carcass traits were analyzed as a completely randomized design with fixed effect of barley silage proportion and pen replicate as experimental unit. Feeding behavior data were analyzed similarly, but with animal as experimental unit. Averaged over the study, DMI increased linearly (11.1, 11.3, 11.7, 11.8 kg/d; P = 0.001) as barley silage proportion increased from 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% of DM, but ADG was not affected (carcass-adjusted,1.90, 1.85, 1.87, 1.89 kg/d; P ≥ 0.30). Consequently, G:F ratio decreased linearly (carcass-adjusted, 168.9, 163.8, 158.5, 160.6 g/kg DMI; P = 0.023). When averaged over the study, proportion of barley silage in the diet had no linear or quadratic effects (P > 0.10) on meal frequency, duration of meals, intermeal duration, or meal size, but eating rate decreased linearly with increasing silage proportion (P = 0.008). There was no diet effect on liver abscesses (P ≥ 0.92), and effects on carcass characteristics were minor or nonexistent. We conclude that increasing the proportion of barley silage in a feedlot finishing diet at the expense of barley grain to minimize the incidence of ruminal acidosis may decrease feed conversion efficiency.

Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid), a conditionally essential sulfur-containing amino acid, is mainly obtained from diet in humans. Experimental studies have shown that taurine's main biological actions include bile salt conjugation, blood pressure regulation, anti-oxidation, and anti-inflammation. We conducted a prospective case-control study nested in the New York University Women's Health Study, a cohort study involving 14,274 women enrolled since 1985. Taurine was measured in pre-diagnostic serum samples of 241 stroke cases and 479 matched controls. There was no statistically significant association between serum taurine and stroke risk in the overall study population. The adjusted ORs for stroke were 1.0 (reference), 0.87 (95% CI, 0.59-1.28), and 1.03 (95% CI, 0.69-1.54) in increasing tertiles of taurine (64.3-126.6, 126.7-152.9, and 153.0-308.5 nmol/mL, respectively). A significant inverse association between serum taurine and stroke risk was observed among never smokers, with an adjusted OR of 0.66 (95% CI, 0.37-1.18) and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.26-0.94) for the second and third tertile, respectively (p for trend = 0.01), but not among past or current smokers (p for interaction < 0.01). We observed no overall association between serum taurine and stroke risk, although a protective effect was observed in never smokers, which requires further investigation. Taurine, Stroke, Epidemiology, Prospective, Case-control study, NYUWHS.

The prevalence of class III obesity (body mass index [BMI]≥40 kg/m2) has increased dramatically in several countries and currently affects 6% of adults in the US, with uncertain impact on the risks of illness and death. Using data from a large pooled study, we evaluated the risk of death, overall and due to a wide range of causes, and years of life expectancy lost associated with class III obesity. In a pooled analysis of 20 prospective studies from the United States, Sweden, and Australia, we estimated sex- and age-adjusted total and cause-specific mortality rates (deaths per 100,000 persons per year) and multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for adults, aged 19-83 y at baseline, classified as obese class III (BMI 40.0-59.9 kg/m2) compared with those classified as normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m2). Participants reporting ever smoking cigarettes or a history of chronic disease (heart disease, cancer, stroke, or emphysema) on baseline questionnaires were excluded. Among 9,564 class III obesity participants, mortality rates were 856.0 in men and 663.0 in women during the study period (1976-2009). Among 304,011 normal-weight participants, rates were 346.7 and 280.5 in men and women, respectively. Deaths from heart disease contributed largely to the excess rates in the class III obesity group (rate differences = 238.9 and 132.8 in men and women, respectively), followed by deaths from cancer (rate differences = 36.7 and 62.3 in men and women, respectively) and diabetes (rate differences = 51.2 and 29.2 in men and women, respectively). Within the class III obesity range, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for total deaths and deaths due to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, nephritis/nephrotic syndrome/nephrosis, chronic lower respiratory disease, and influenza/pneumonia increased with increasing BMI. Compared with normal-weight BMI, a BMI of 40-44.9, 45-49.9, 50-54.9, and 55-59.9 kg/m2 was associated with an estimated 6.5 (95% CI: 5.7-7.3), 8.9 (95% CI: 7.4-10.4), 9.8 (95% CI: 7.4-12.2), and 13.7 (95% CI: 10.5-16.9) y of life lost. A limitation was that BMI was mainly ascertained by self-report. Class III obesity is associated with substantially elevated rates of total mortality, with most of the excess deaths due to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and major reductions in life expectancy compared with normal weight. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.