Dynamic changes of the fecal bacterial community in dairy cows during early lactation

Abstract

The dynamics of the community structure and composition of the dairy cow fecal bacterial communities during early lactation is unclear, therefore this study was conducted to characterize the fecal bacterial communities in dairy cows during early lactation using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Feces were sampled from 20 healthy fresh Holstein dairy cows on day 1 (Fresh1d group) and day 14 (Fresh14d group) after calving. After calving, cows were fed the same fresh diet. The dominant phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were decreased (P ≤ 0.01) with lactating progress and phyla Bacteroidetes were increased (P = 0.008) with lactating progress and dietary transition. At family level, the predominant families were Ruminococcaceae (35.23%), Lachnospiraceae (11.46%), Rikenellaceae (10.44%) and Prevotellaceae (6.89%). A total of 14 genera were different between fecal samples from Fresh1d and Fresh14d, included the predominant genera, such as Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005 (P = 0.008), Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group (P = 0.043) and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group (P = 0.008). All fecal bacterial communities shared members of the genera Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005, Bacteroides and Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group. These findings help to improve our understanding of the composition and structure of the fecal microbial community in fresh cows and may provide insight into bacterial adaptation time and dietary in lactating cows.

Soil N2O flux and nitrification and denitrification gene responses to feed-induced differences in the composition of dairy cow faeces

“…This would explain why PLFA data indicate the dominance of Gram + bacteria in faeces, whereas DNA sequencing approaches usually find markedly more Gram-bacteria (Pitta et al 2016;Jose et al 2017;Kala et al 2017;Thomas et al 2017). However, Kim et al (2014) observed a dominant contribution of Gram + Firmicutes, ranging between 50 and 77% of total sequences caused by differences in diet, which is in line with recent results of others (Faulkner et al 2017;Cendron et al 2020;Huang et al 2020).…”

Unraveling differences in fecal microbiota stability in mammals: from high variable carnivores and consistently stable herbivores

“…Especially farm animals e.g. cattle [ 4 – 6 ], pigs [ 7 – 9 ] or sheep [ 10 , 11 ], have been largely analyzed due to their importance in agriculture. The microbiota of some wild species, especially highly endangered species such as black rhinos [ 12 ], koalas [ 13 ] and Tasmanian devils [ 14 ], has also been described in more detailed studies.…”

The Effect of Herbal Feed Additives in the Diet of Dairy Goats on Intestinal Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) Count

“…There have been few reports on the effect of lactation stages in ruminants on faecal microbiota composition. The report of Huang et al [28] shows a significant effect of lactation period on diversity at the phylum level in the faecal bacterial community. This means that lactation stages induce a variation in the faecal bacterial community [28].…”