Effects of inoculation with active microorganisms derived from adult goats on growth performance, gut microbiota and serum metabolome in newborn lambs

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of inoculation with adult goat ruminal fluid on growth, health, gut microbiota and serum metabolism in lambs during the first 15 days of life. Twenty four Youzhou dark newborn lambs were selected and randomly distributed across 3 treatments (n = 8/group): autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL sterilized normal saline (CON), autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL fresh ruminal fluid (RF) and autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL autoclaved ruminal fluid (ARF). Results showed that RF inoculation was more effective at promoting recovery of body weight. Compared with CON, greater serum concentrations of ALP, CHOL, HDL and LAC in the RF group suggested a better health status in lambs. The relative abundance of Akkermansia and Escherichia-Shigella in gut was lower in the RF group, whereas the relative abundance of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group tended to increase. Metabolomics analysis shown that RF stimulated the metabolism of bile acids, small peptides, fatty acids and Trimethylamine-N-Oxide, which were found the correlation relationship with gut microorganisms. Overall, our study demonstrated that ruminal fluid inoculation with active microorganisms had a beneficial impact on growth, health and overall metabolism partly through modulating the gut microbial community.

Inoculation of Newborn Lambs with Ruminal Solids Derived from Adult Goats Reprograms the Development of Gut Microbiota and Serum Metabolome and Favors Growth Performance

“…In the present work, a trend of weight recovery was observed in the SRS group, which indicated that ruminal solid activity microorganisms are with the capacity to improve the growth of newborn lambs. Moreover, weight loss was also observed in our study similar to previous studies . The reason might be that newborn lambs are under neonatal stress after being removed from the dam.…”

“…We previously reported that ruminal fluid inoculated with active microorganisms enhanced growth performance, health condition, and overall metabolism partly through regulating the gut microbial community in newborn lambs. 21 This was in agreement with earlier studies that ruminal fluid inoculation accelerates rumen development, fermentation, and microbial colonization, which could serve as a strategy to smooth the transition from milk to solid feed and favor the animal performance. 22−24 In fact, few studies have discussed the developmental and healthy effects of ruminal solid microbiota transplantation during the first 15 days since birth.…”

“…The bacterial communities in the liquid and solid phases continuously interact with each other, but each has potentially different functions. We previously reported that ruminal fluid inoculated with active microorganisms enhanced growth performance, health condition, and overall metabolism partly through regulating the gut microbial community in newborn lambs . This was in agreement with earlier studies that ruminal fluid inoculation accelerates rumen development, fermentation, and microbial colonization, which could serve as a strategy to smooth the transition from milk to solid feed and favor the animal performance. − …”

“…Microbial transplantation in early life was as a strategy to optimize the health and performance of livestock animals. In our study, microorganisms derived from ruminal solids with activity or inactivity were used to test whether the microbes could affect microbial colonization in early life, as previously suggested that inoculation with rumen fluid in early life had a beneficial impact on growth performance, microbial population, serum metabolome, and favors the weaning process in goats. − Overall, the present study showed that feeding active ruminal solid-attached microorganisms results in a more complex and diverse microbiota, which facilitates microbial development and serum metabolism and favors animal health in newborn lambs that were kept isolated from adult animals.…”

“…Moreover, weight loss was also observed in our study similar to previous studies. 21 The reason might be that newborn lambs are under neonatal stress after being removed from the dam. Given the separation of mother-child is the basis for artificial rearing, mild diarrhea was recorded 29 and led to lost body weight during the first days of life.…”