Effect of dietary fiber levels on bacterial composition with age in the cecum of meat rabbits

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of dietary fiber levels on the growth performance, digestion, metabolism, and cecal microbial community of rabbits with different diets at different age. The different levels of dietary natural detergent fiber (NDF) were formulated accordingly: 400(A), 350(B), 300(C), 250(D) g/kg original matter basis, respectively; the different ages were 52, 62, and 72 days. With NDF increasing, the average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion rate (FCR) were increased, whereas average daily gain (ADG) and mortality were decreased (p < 0.05). The stomach relative weight, stomach content relative weight, cecal relative weight, and cecal content weight increased with increasing NDF (p < 0.05). The NH -N concentration of cecum dropped when the dietary NDF increased (p < 0.05). The diversity of the total microbiota increased significantly in Diets B, C (p = 0.011), and reached the lowest in 52 days for all diet groups. The richness index was decreased significantly in Diet A, D (p < 0.05) and in 62 days (p < 0.001), respectively. The phylum Firmicutes was higher (p < 0.01) in rabbits fed Diets B, C than Diets A, D and Bacteroidetes was highest in Diets C, D, and Proteobacteria was the highest in Diet A (p < 0.001). Among the classified genera, there were 14 that had levels of abundance of more than 1% and were commonly shared by all samples. Ruminococcus spp. that produced volatile fatty acid (VFA) abundance was highest from Diets B, C at 52 and 62 days. It is interesting to note that Bifidobacterium from Diet C was the most abundant genus during the entire experimental period (p < 0.01). The data from Venn diagrams, principal component analysis (PCA), and heat map plots of the bacterial communities showed that there were more groups of shared microbiota with aging. The above results indicate the cecal microbiota controlled by the 350 g/kg NDF diet can prevent gastrointestinal distress and exhibit good production performance.

Effect of host breeds on gut microbiome and serum metabolome in meat rabbits

“…The relative abundances of the main phyla did not differ between both rabbit breeds, except for the phylum Verrucomicrobia, which showed a higher abundance in Elco rabbits (Additional file 2 : Table S2). This could be explained by the presence of the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria as they are significantly affected by diet factors (e.g., dietary fibre type and level) [ 20 , 21 ] and our rabbits were reared under identical conditions, receiving the same diet. Similarly, Li et al found that individuals of the same horse breed raised under different feeding regimes showed tremendous variations in the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes but not in those of Verrucomicrobia [ 17 ].…”

Administration of Fermented Averrhoa bilimbi L. Fruit Filtrate on Growth, Hematological, Intestinal, and Carcass Indices of Broilers

“…Previously, Saki et al (2012) reported that feeding organic acid mixture resulted in the decreased cecal relative weight of broilers. Considering the positive relationship between the fiber content of diets and cecal relative weight (Wu et al, 2019), the decrease in cecal weight in the experimental chickens treated with fermented filtrate may be attributed to the improved fiber digestion in the upper part of the digestive tract and hence less fiber reaching the caeca of broilers. In support to our inference, Rodjan et al (2018) reported that dietary administration of organic acids and probiotics increased the ability of broilers to degrade crude fiber.…”

Comparative Analysis of Fecal Microbiota in Grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) and Other Herbivorous Livestock in Ghana

“…Indeed, in other animals, the fecal microbiota of wild and domesticated individuals within the same species are different, and their fecal microbiota is affected by feed differences [20]. Moreover, low-fiber diets or high-protein diets can alter the diversity of gut microbiota and may cause adverse effects, such as diarrhea and reduced fertility due to obesity [40,41]. Thus, in future studies, it is crucial to assess how much feed characteristics affect the gut microbiota of domesticated grasscutters.…”