Monitoring the variation in the gut microbiota of captive woolly monkeys related to changes in diet during a reintroduction process

Abstract

Microbiome is known to play an important role in the health of organisms and different factors such as diet have been associated with modifications in microbial communities. Differences in the microbiota composition of wild and captive animals has been evaluated; however, variation during a reintroduction process in primates has never been reported. Our aim was to identify changes in the bacterial composition of three individuals of reintroduced woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagothricha) and the variables associated with such changes. Fecal samples were collected and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced to determine gut microbial composition and functionality. Individual samples from released individuals showed a higher microbial diversity after being released compared to before liberation, associated with changes in their diet. Beta diversity and functionality analysis showed separation of samples from released and captive conditions and the major factor of variation was the moment of liberation. This study shows that intestinal microbiota varies depending on site conditions and is mainly associated with diet diversity. The intake of food from wild origin by released primates may promote a positive effect on gut microbiota, improving health, and potentially increasing success in reintroduction processes.

Isolated Grauer’s gorilla populations differ in diet and gut microbiome

“…Flexilinea (Chloroflexi; Anaerolineaceae), Prevotella 7 (Bacteroidetes; Prevotellaceae), and Ruminococcus (Firmicutes; Ruminococcaceae) (Campbell et al, 2020;Hicks et al, 2018;Narat et al, 2020). However, some of these core taxa were not particularly common in previous studies of gorilla microbiomes, e.g., Senegalimassilia (Actinobacteria; Eggerthellaceae) and Sutterella (Gammaproteobacteria; Burkholderiaceae), though they are common in the gut of baboons (Grieneisen et al, 2021), geladas (Baniel et al, 2021), white-faced capuchins, (Mallott, Amato, et al, 2018), and woolly monkeys (Quiroga-González et al, 2021). The gut microbiome of Grauer's gorillas appeared to be relatively stable through time, as evidenced by greater similarity amongst samples from the same individuals collected almost one year apart compared to other individuals from the same social group, a finding generally in agreement with studies on the human gut microbiome (Björk et al, 2019;Faith et al, 2013).…”

Wild and Captive Environments Drive the Convergence of Gut Microbiota and Impact Health in Threatened Equids

“…The Alpha and Beta diversity of the microflora of PHs and AWAs in the same environment exhibited remarkable similarity, indicating that the cohabitation had a convergence effect on the gut microbiota diversity in different species of Equidae. Equids in captivity had significantly lower Alpha diversity, which is typical with most captive wildlife research -captive animals' symbiotic microbiome diversity has a considerably decreased tendency than their wild counterparts (Kohl et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2017;Quiroga-González et al, 2021;San Juan et al, 2021). The decline in diversity might be due to the artificial captivity of wildlife greatly hinders their exposure to microorganisms in the natural environment and increases the risk of exposure to antibiotics and anthelmintics, which have detrimental effects on developing the diversity of the microflora (McKenzie et al, 2017;Kunz et al, 2019).…”

Dietary preferences and feeding strategies of Colombian highland woolly monkeys

“…water, soil, scats) by amplifying short conserved gene sequences and running a parallel sequencing of the PCR amplicons 36 . Metabarcoding has been crucial in unveiling the feeding ecology, food webs, host-microbiota relationships and trophic interactions of all sorts of cryptic and elusive organisms 40 – 45 .…”