DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This office action was written in response to the Applicant’s Remarks filed 12/12/25. Claims 1-6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20-30 are pending have been examined on the merits.
Withdrawn Rejection
The objections to claims 1-30 have been withdrawn.
The 103(a) rejections of claims 1, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 25 over Oyebode et al. “Crassocephalum rubens, a leafy vegetable…” Journal of Food Biochemistry 2019 have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019.
Regarding Claim 1: Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides as useful in animal diets [pg. 100, 4th para]. Ayodele discloses quality can be enhanced through supplementation, and that C. crepidioides a good source of nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment of diseases [pg. 100, 2nd column top three lines]. The Applicants’ instant specification indicates that C. crepidioides is a synonym for C. rabens [Instant 18286,943 Specification 0027]. Ayodele does not disclose “to thereby promote growth of the animal”, however, claim 1 is a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention and in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art, the recitation must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art. MPEP 2103 states that intended use language "does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim". The above mentioned phrase does not limit the claim to any particular structure, so it is not interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
However, Ayodele does disclose that feed containing C. crepidioides does result in growth in the animal with slightly higher average body weight using feed with CCLP versus the control feed [Table 2].
Regarding Claim 15: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 1. Ayodele further discloses feeding animals with the composition as discussed above. This inherently promotes their survival since food is necessary to sustain life.
Regarding Claim 20: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 1. Ayodele further discloses C. crepidioides plant extract in powder form [pg. 100 “Preparation of Plant Material..”].
Regarding Claim 22: Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides as useful in animal diets [pg. 100, 4th para]. Ayodele discloses quality can be enhanced through supplementation, and that C. crepidioides a good source of nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment of diseases [pg. 100, 2nd column top three lines]. The Applicants’ instant specification indicates that C. crepidioides is a synonym for C. rabens [Instant 18286,943 Specification 0027]. Ayodele does not disclose “to thereby promote growth of the animal”, however, claim 1 is a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention and in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art, the recitation must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art. MPEP 2103 states that intended use language "does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim". The above mentioned phrase does not limit the claim to any particular structure, so it is not interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
However, Ayodele does disclose that feed containing C. crepidioides does result in growth in the animal with slightly higher average body weight using feed with CCLP versus the control feed [Table 2].
Ayodele does not disclose a method of treating a disease caused by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRSV).
Regarding Claim 25: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 22. Ayodele further discloses feeding animals with the composition. This inherently promotes their survival since food is necessary to sustain life.
8. Claims 2-5, 14, 18, and 26-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019 as applied to claim 1 above and in further view of Jones et al. US 20170354167.
Regarding Claims 2, 3: Ayodele discloses feeding C. crepidioides to an animal as discussed above in claim 1.
Ayodele does not disclose adding an herbal ingredient (claim 2); that the herbal ingredient is mint (claim 3).
Jones disclose swine feed containing herbal essential oils including varieties of mint (peppermint, mint, mentha, spearmint) [abstract; 0014]. Jones discloses that the oils and other ingredients decrease porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv) and/or the growth of Salmonella bacteria [abstract; 0009].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Ayodele to include and herbal ingredient such as mint as in Jones in order to help reduce the presence of PEDv and/or Salmonella bacteria in animal feed.
Regarding Claims 4 and 5: Ayodele discloses feeding C. crepidioides to an animal as discussed above in claim 1.
Ayodele does not disclose wherein the promotion of the growth comprises modulating gut microbiota in the animal, decreasing occurrence of at least one of diarrhea and enteric infection in the animal, increasing body weight gain of the animal, decreasing feed conversion rate, and/or modulating primary metabolism in the animal (claim 4); wherein the modulation of the gut microbiota comprises decreasing an amount of pathogenic gut microbiota in the animal and/or increasing an amount of probiotic microbiota in the animal (claim 5).
Jones disclose swine feed containing herbal essential oils including varieties of mint [abstract; 0014]. Jones discloses that the oils and other ingredients decrease porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv) and/or the growth of Salmonella bacteria [abstract; 0009].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Ayodele to include and herbal ingredient such as mint as in Jones and that the presence of such would have helped reduce the presence of PEDv and/or Salmonella bacteria in animal feed.
Regarding Claim 14: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 4. Ayodele does not disclose wherein the modulation of the primary metabolism comprises increasing or decreasing at least a level of an amino acid, a level of a fatty acid, a level of a carbohydrate, and a level of an organic acid or any combination thereof.
However, claim 14 is a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention and in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art, the recitation must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art. MPEP 2103 states that intended use language "does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim". The above mentioned phrase does not limit the claim to any particular structure, so it is not interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
Regarding Claim 18: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 1. Ayodele does not disclose that the animal is weaned swine or a grown up pig.
Jones discloses feeding a feed composition to a piglet [Tale 4; 0041; 0048; 0063; 0064; Table 18; 0070-0072].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of modified Ayodele to include feeding to pigs as in Jones since Ayodele anticipates feeding the composition containing C. crepidioides to animals and since Jones discloses administering its feed to animals including pigs.
Regarding Claim 26: Ayodele discloses a composition containing C. crepidioides as a wild edible under cultivated traditional leafy vegetable [abstract; Pg. 100 Plant Material; Preparation of…]. Ayodele discloses that C. crepidioides has desirable antioxidant effects [pg. 100]. Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides as beneficial to the animal diet [pg. 100, 3rd and 4th paragraphs].
Ayodele does not explicitly disclose the animal feed composition comprising a feed supplement.
Jones discloses supplementing animal feed with ingredients that are beneficial and reduce pathogens in animals [abstract].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify to composition of Ayodele to include a feed supplement containing C. crepidioides in an animal feed composition as in Jones in order to dose the C. crepidioides for consumption in animal feed.
Regarding Claim 27: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 26. Ayodele further discloses C. crepidioides plant extract in powder form [pg. 100, Preparation of plant sample].
Regarding Claims 28 and 29: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 26.
Ayodele does not disclose adding an herbal ingredient (claim 28); that the herbal ingredient is mint (claim 29).
Jones disclose swine feed containing herbal essential oils including varieties of mint (peppermint, mint, mentha, spearmint) [abstract; 0014]. Jones discloses that the oils and other ingredients decrease porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv) and/or the growth of Salmonella bacteria [abstract; 0009].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Ayodele to include and herbal ingredient such as mint as in Jones in order to help reduce the presence of PEDv and/or Salmonella bacteria in animal feed.
9. Claims 6, 8, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019 as applied to claims 4 and 5 above and in further view of Zhu et al. CN 109430553 Machine Translation 2019.
Regarding Claim 6: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 5. Ayodele does not disclose wherein the pathogenic gut microbiota is at least one selected from the group consisting of Clostridium spp., Streptococcus spp., Veillonella spp., Actinobacillus spp., Escherichia, Shigella, Trueperella spp., Pseudomonas spp.
Zhu discloses animal feed and specifically swine feed wherein the swine feed contains essential oil and wherein the essential oil can be mint (peppermint, mint) [abstract;]. Zhu discloses the reduction of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria [Abstract; pg. 7].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious that the modified method of Ayodele would have been effective against pathogens including E. coli as in Zhu since modified Ayodele discloses the inclusion of mint essential oil and Zhu discloses that mint essential oil in animal feed is effective against pathogens including E. coli.
Regarding Claim 8: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 5. Ayodele does not disclose wherein the probiotic microbiota is at least one selected from the group consisting of Lactobacillus spp., Ruminococcaceae family, Megasphaera spp., Lachnospiraceae family, Ruminococcus_1, Ruminococcus_2, Megamonas spp., Clostridium butyricum, Bacteroides spp., Anaerostipes spp., and Alistipes spp.
Zhu discloses animal feed and specifically swine feed wherein the swine feed contains essential oil and wherein the essential oil can be mint and where the composition contains C. butyricum [abstract;]. Zhu discloses the reduction of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria using a composition containing [Abstract; pg. 7].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to modify the method of Ayodele to include probiotics including C. butyricum as in Zhu since Zhu discloses that the microorganism is effective against other pathogenic microorganisms.
Regarding Claim 10: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 4. Ayodele does not disclose wherein the at least one of the diarrhea and the enteric infection is associated with at least one bacterial pathogen selected from the group consisting of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter spp., Brachyspira spp., Yersinia spp., Lawsonia spp. and Helicobacter spp.
Zhu discloses animal feed and specifically swine feed wherein the swine feed contains essential oil and wherein the essential oil can be mint (peppermint, mint) [abstract;]. Zhu discloses the reduction of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria [Abstract; pg. 7].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious that the modified method of Ayodele would have been effective against pathogens including E. coli as in Zhu since modified Ayodele discloses the inclusion of mint essential oil and Zhu discloses that mint essential oil in animal feed is effective against pathogens including E. coli.
Claims 15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019 as applied to claim 1 above and in further view of Thoudam et al. “Chapter - 3 A Review Study on Nutraceutical and Nutritional Efficacy of Crassocephalum crepidioides” 2020.
Regarding Claim 15: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 1. Ayodele further discloses feeding animals with the composition as discussed above. This inherently promotes their survival since food is necessary to sustain life.
Regarding Claim 17: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 15. Ayodele does not disclose that C. rabens/Crassocephalum crepidioides has anti-inflammatory properties.
Thoudam discloses anti-inflammatory properties in Crassocephalum crepidioides [pg. 58].
Ayodele as modified does not explicitly disclose wherein the animal feed composition lowers at least one of a TNF-a level, a fecal IgA level, or a combination thereof, however, claim 17 is a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention and in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art, the recitation must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art. MPEP 2103 states that intended use language "does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim". The above mentioned phrase does not limit the claim to any particular structure, so it is not interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
Further it would have been obvious that the C. rabens/Crassocephalum crepidioides of Ayodele would have had anti-inflammatory properties since it is disclosed as having such in Thoudam.
10. Claims 22-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019 in view of Zhu et al. CN 109430553 Machine Translation 2019.
Regarding Claim 22: Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides as useful in animal diets [pg. 100, 4th para]. Ayodele discloses quality can be enhanced through supplementation, and that C. crepidioides a good source of nutraceuticals in prevention and treatment of diseases [pg. 100, 2nd column top three lines]. The Applicants’ instant specification indicates that C. crepidioides is a synonym for C. rabens [Instant 18286,943 Specification 0027]. Ayodele does not disclose “to thereby promote growth of the animal”, however, claim 1 is a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention and in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art, the recitation must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art. MPEP 2103 states that intended use language "does not limit a claim to a particular structure does not limit the scope of a claim". The above mentioned phrase does not limit the claim to any particular structure, so it is not interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
However, Ayodele does disclose that feed containing C. crepidioides does result in growth in the animal with slightly higher average body weight using feed with CCLP versus the control feed [Table 2].
Ayodele does not disclose a method of treating a disease caused by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRSV).
Zhu discloses animal feed and specifically swine feed wherein the swine feed contains essential oil and wherein the essential oil can be mint (peppermint, mint) [abstract;]. Zhu discloses the reduction of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria [Abstract; pg. 7]. Zhu discloses treating and preventing PRSSV [pg. 2 and 3].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to the modify the method of Ayodele to include ingredients that would have been effective against pathogens causing PRRSV as in Zhu since such diseases are common and detrimental to livestock. The incorporation of ingredients that reduce the incidences of the illness in a pig or other livestock/animal would have been beneficial and an obvious step.
Regarding Claim 23 and 24: Ayodele as modified discloses as discussed above in claim 22. Ayodele does not disclose wherein the composition contains an additional herbal ingredient (claim 23); where the herbal ingredient is mint essential oils (claim 24).
Zhu discloses animal feed and specifically swine feed wherein the swine feed contains essential oil and wherein the essential oil can be mint [abstract;]. Zhu discloses the reduction of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria [Abstract; pg. 7].
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious that the modified method of Ayodele would have been effective against pathogens including E. coli as in Zhu since modified Ayodele discloses the inclusion of mint essential oil and Zhu discloses that mint essential oil in animal feed is effective against pathogens including E. coli.
Regarding Claim 25: Ayodele discloses as discussed above in claim 22. Ayodele further discloses feeding animals with the composition. This inherently promotes their survival since food is necessary to sustain life.
8. Claims 21 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayodele et al. Journal of Experimental Pharmacology 2019 as applied to claim 1 above and in further view of Shyur et al. (WO 2019/147300).
Regarding Claim 21: Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides (C. rabens) as useful in animal diets [pg. 100, 4th para] as discussed above in claim 1.
Ayodele does not disclose wherein the Crassocephalum rabens or the extract thereof ranges from about 0.001 wt% to about 5 wt% of the animal feed composition.
Shyur discloses feeding C. rabens to animals [abstract; 0039; 0043; 0051]. Shyur discloses an effective amount of C. rabens [0040]. Shyur discloses 200 to 400 mg/kg dosage of C. rabens [0084] which is equivalent to .02% to .04%.
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Ayodele to include the C. crepidioides/C. rabens at the amounts disclosed in Shyur since at these amounts the C. crepidioides/C. rabens is able to provide a therapeutic effect in an animal.
Regarding Claim 30: Ayodele discloses C. crepidioides (C. rabens) as useful in animal diets [pg. 100, 4th para] as discussed above in claim 26.
Ayodele does not disclose wherein the Crassocephalum rabens or the extract thereof ranges from about 0.001 wt% to about 5 wt% of the animal feed composition.
Shyur discloses feeding C. rabens to animals [abstract; 0039; 0043; 0051]. Shyur discloses an effective amount of C. rabens [0040]. Shyur discloses 200 to 400 mg/kg dosage of C. rabens [0084] which is equivalent to .02% to .04%.
At the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Ayodele to include the C. crepidioides/C. rabens at the amounts disclosed in Shyur since at these amounts the C. crepidioides/C. rabens is able to provide a therapeutic effect in an animal.
Response to Arguments
9. The objections to claims 1-30 have been withdrawn.
10. The 103(a) rejections of claims 1, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 25 over Oyebode et al. “Crassocephalum rubens, a leafy vegetable…” Journal of Food Biochemistry 2019 have been withdrawn.
Conclusion
11. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FELICIA C TURNER whose telephone number is (571)270-3733. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu 8:00-4:00 pm.
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/Felicia C Turner/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1793