Effect of intestinal flora on the formation of endometritis of sow

Abstract

Background Aberration of birth canal microbiota is one of the most important factors in the etiology of sow endomentritis. Nevertheless, reports about the structure and composition of birth canal microbiota in endomentritis sow and their relationship with intestinal microbes is limited. Therefore, understanding the relationship between birth canal microbiota and intestinal microbiota of the host has become exceedingly crucial. Results In this study, 4 healthy and 4 endomentritis sows were selected basing on whether the sow had endometritis or not in a farm of China. The microflora of their birth canal secretions and fresh feces were analyzed via sequencing the V3 + V4 region of bacterial 16S rDNA gene. The results showed that the significant difference between endometritis and healthy sows birth canal flora in the composition and abundance. Sow endomentritis was associated with increasing in the relative abundance of Porphyromonas, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Streptococcus, Ezakiella, Fusobacterium, Actinobacillus, Bacteroides, and Prevotella as well as Anaerococcus. On the contrary, the majority of beneficial bacteria that belonging to Firmicutes phylum (e.g., Lactobacillus and Enterococcus ) declined in endomentritis sow. The increased relative abundance of Porphyromonas in the vaginal secretions might correlate with the decrease of Lactobacillusin the feces of endometritis sows. Moreover, the experimental result also found that some intestinal bacteria (such as Escherichia-Shigella and Bacteroides) may be bound up with the onset of sow endometritis. Conclusion Sow endometritis is closely related to the microbiota of birth canal, and that some intestinal bacteria may promote the onset of endometritis. The above results can supply a theoretical basis to research the pathogenesis of endometritis and the microbiota of sow's birth canal and gut.