Modulatory Effect of Protein and Carotene Dietary Levels on Pig gut Microbiota

Abstract

In this study we investigated the impact of dietary protein and carotene levels on microbial functions and composition during the last month of purebred fattening Duroc pigs. Fecal microbiota was characterized using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing at two points of live, 165 (T1) and 195 (T2) days. From 70 to 165 days of age, 32 pigs were divided into two groups fed either a standard-protein (SP) or a low-protein (LP) diet. In the last month (165–195 days), all pigs received a LP diet, either carotene-enriched (CE) or not (NC). Significant differences were observed between T1 and T2 at Amplicon Sequences Variants (ASVs), phylum and genus levels. In T1 group, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium and Treponema were the genera most influenced by dietary protein, together with predicted functions related with the degradation of protein. In contrast, the CE diet did not impact the microbiome diversity, although 160 ASVs were differentially abundant between CE and NC groups at T2. Weak stability of enterotype clusters across time-points was observed as consequence of medium-term dietary interventions. Our results suggest that during the last month of fattening, dietary protein have a stronger effect than carotenes on the modulation of the compositional and functional structure of the pig microbiota.

Orange corn diets associated with lower severity of footpad dermatitis in broilers

“…A slight but distinguishable shift in community membership owing to the corn source or color used to feed the birds but no change in the bacterial alpha and beta diversity. Similar to previous studies in swine ( González-Prendes et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2019 ), corn carotenoid concentration altered some bacterial genera but not community alpha diversity. Additional replicates are likely required to discern differences in the beta diversity of the microbiome owing to corn carotenoid concentration, but the magnitude of the difference is likely to be small.…”

“…Carotenoid supplementation can alter the intestinal microbiome, or microbial community that resides in the intestinal tract. In pigs, while the microbial community alpha diversity was unchanged, dietary β-carotene supplementation altered the membership of the microbiome of weaning ( Li et al., 2019 ) and finishing pigs ( González-Prendes, 2019 ). Carotenoid supplementation likely affects the microbiome of poultry as well, but little research has elucidated specific details of these changes ( Gong et al., 2020 ).…”

Identification of Enterotype and Its Effects on Intestinal Butyrate Production in Pigs

“…On the other hand, distinct from the rapid-growing lean breeds that were investigated in the previous studies, such as Duroc [ 27 , 30 ], Large White [ 25 ], and Pietrain pigs [ 18 ], Jinhua pig is a traditional slow-growing breed in China with a high body fat content. It has a significantly different gut microbiome than the lean breeds [ 32 ], which might correspondingly lead to the different ET classification.…”

“…Ramayo-Caldas et al found that the ET-like clustering was significantly associated with the pig feed efficiency and growth traits, suggesting the ET concept may have an important role in the pig production industry [ 26 , 28 ]. Although relatively robust, ETs are demonstrated to be strongly associated with the pig age, long-term diets, and even different clustering and grouping strategies [ 18 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. However, knowledge is also limited to the effects of the different ETs on the butyrate metabolism in pigs.…”

A collection of bacterial isolates from the pig intestine reveals functional and taxonomic diversity

“…Targeted 16S rRNA gene amplicon studies. Besides the large-scale analysis described in the previous paragraph, in order to assess the coverage of sequencebased diversity by all isolates in relation to parameters such as diet, age, and gut locations, we processed three additional datasets: (i) published data 111 investigating the impact of dietary protein content on the faecal microbiota of castrated male Duroc pigs at the age of 165 days; (ii) stool samples from ten German landrace pigs from the animal facility of Thalhausen (TU Munich, Germany) at the age of 8, 24, and 52 weeks; (iii) samples from six wildtype pigs from the MIDY biobank 5,112 , including five locations within the gastro-intestinal tract. For studies 2 and 3, stool samples were processed and sequenced as previously reported in detail 113 and briefly described in the next section.…”