Fecal bacterial microbiota of Canadian commercial mink (Neovison vison): Yearly, life stage, and seasonal comparisons

Abstract

The gastrointestinal microbiome is known to play a critical role in animal health but has been relatively poorly characterized in commercial mink, an obligate carnivore. Whether the microbiota can be manipulated in mink to improve pelt quality, health, and well-being is unknown. The objectives of this study were to characterize the fecal microbiota of commercial mink, and to evaluate potential changes due to year (2014 vs 2015), life stage (adult female vs weaned kit), season (summer vs winter), and between Canadian farms. Pooled fecal samples were collected from adult females and weaned kits in the summers of 2014 (n = 173) and 2015 (n = 168), and from females in the winter of 2016 (n = 39), a time when females undergo marked calorie restriction, from 49 mink farms in Ontario. Bacterial DNA was extracted and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified. Approximately 22 million sequences were identified following quality control filtering. A total of 31 bacterial phyla were identified; however, only 3 comprised >1% of the total sequences identified, with Firmicutes and Proteobacteria together comprising 95% of the total sequences. Comparisons were made by life stage, season and year; no differences were found in the relative abundance of any taxa between samples collected from adult females and weaned kits from the same year and the greatest number of differences at each taxonomic level were noted between 2014 and 2015. Significantly more operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were found in 2014 than 2015 or 2016 (p<0.05) and samples from 2014 were more even, but less diverse than in 2015 (p = 0.002 and 0.001, respectively). There were significant differences in community population and structure by year and season (all p-values <0.001). The predominant phyla and genera at the farm level were similar from year to year. Together, these indicate that mink environment, season, and time are important factors in the stability of gastrointestinal microbiota, once mink reach maturity.

Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) Gut Microbiota: Taxonomical and Functional Differences across Sex and Age Classes

“…Reinforcing these notions, the taxonomic biomarker discovery analysis detected a significantly higher abundance of Tissierellia and Clostridia classes, Erysipelotrichales order, Eubacteriaceae, Cellullomonadaceae, Rikenellaceae, and Peptoniphilaceae families in non-adult samples. Tissierellia members have been previously detected in the gut microbiota of Canadian mink [80] and humans [81,82]. Erysipelotrichales members were associated with lipidemic profiles of human hosts, probably associated with high-fat content diets [83], together with Rikenellaceae members [84].…”

Contrasting gut microbiota in captive Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) by age

“…3). A study of the same Mustelidae American mink (Neovison vison) by Compo et al (2018) showed that Lactococcus was abundantly detected in freshly weaned kits than adult females, which supports that the genus Lactococcus is thought to predominate for digesting milk. Terrisporobacter has been reported to be the most predominant in the gut microbiota of human infants fed only powder milk (Cai et al 2019).…”

Egyptian Mongoose Gut Microbiota: Taxonomical and Functional Differences across Sex and Age Classes

“…Reinforcing these notions, the taxonomic biomarkers discovery analysis detected a significantly higher abundance of Tissierellia and Clostridia classes, Erysipelotrichales order, Eubacteriaceae, Cellullomonadaceae, Rikenellaceae, and Peptoniphilaceae families in non-adult samples. Tissierellia members have been previously detected on the gut microbiota of Canadian mink [81] and humans [82,83]. Erysipelotrichales members were associated with lipidemic profiles of human hosts, probably associated with high-fat content diets [84], together with Rikenellaceae members [85].…”