Background: The small intestine plays a crucial role in animals in maintaining homeostasis as well as a series of physiological events such as nutrient uptake and immune function to improve productivity. Research on intestinal organoids has recently garnered interest, aiming to study various functions of the intestinal epithelium as a potential alternative to an in vivo system. These technologies have created new possibilities and opportunities for substituting animals for testing with an in vitro model. Methods: Here, we report the establishment and characterisation of intestinal organoids derived from jejunum tissues of adult pigs. Intestinal crypts, including intestinal stem cells from the jejunum tissue of adult pigs (10 months old), were sequentially isolated and cultivated over several passages without losing their proliferation and differentiation using the scaffold-based and three-dimensional method, which indicated the recapitulating capacity. Results: Porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids showed the specific expression of several genes related to intestinal stem cells and the epithelium. Furthermore, they showed high permeability when exposed to FITC-dextran 4 kDa, representing a barrier function similar to that of in vivo tissues. Collectively, these results demonstrate the efficient cultivation and characteristics of porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. Conclusions: In this study, using a 3D culture system, we successfully established porcine jejunum-derived intestinal organoids. They show potential for various applications, such as for nutrient absorption as an in vitro model of the intestinal epithelium fused with organ-on-a-chip technology to improve productivity in animal biotechnology in future studies.

The Korean National Residue Program consists of three sampling plans for domestic and imported foods of animal origin : monitoring, surveillance/enforcement and exploratory testing. Monitoring and surveillance/enforcement testing programs are routinely implemented by 17 Provincial Veterinary Services for domestic products and two regional offices of Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA) for imported products, respectively. The exploratory testing is designed to test substances which are not included in the list of monitoring and enforcement testing programs controlled by headquarter of QIA. In 2010, the exploratory testing was carried out in domestic and imported foods of animal origin for 24 veterinary drugs including florfenicol, clavulanic acid, four quinolones (nalidixic acid, difloxacin, marbofloxacin, orbifloxacin), two anthelmintics (closantel, levamisole), two sedatives (azaperone, carazolol), six glucocorticoids (dexamethasone, betamethasone, flumethasone, prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone), eight non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (phenylbutazone, paracetamol, carprofen, flunixin, ketoprofen, meloxicam, tolfenamic acid, acetylsalicylic acid). In the total of 1,153 domestic samples, only florfenicol was detected from 17 pig muscles at levels of 0.2～614 ng/g. Of 17 positive pig muscles, 16 samples were non-violative and one sample was violative. In the total of 1,065 imported samples, florfenicol was detected at 0.4 ng/g in one pork. Also, flunixin was detected at 22 ng/g in one beef.