Seasonal Differences in Fecal Microbial Community Structure and Metabolism of House-Feeding Chinese Merino Fine-Wool Sheep

Abstract

The digestive tract microorganisms play a very important role in the host's nutrient intake, environmental suitability, and affect the host's physiological mechanism. Previous studies showed that in different seasons, mammalian gut microbes would be different. However, most of them are concentrated in wild animals. It remains unclear how seasonal change affects the gut microbes of Chinese merino fine-wool Sheep. Therefore, in this experiment, we continuously collected blood and feces samples of 50 Chinese merino fine-wool sheep in different seasons, measured the physiological indicators of blood, and passed 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, determined the microbial community structure of fecal microorganisms and predicted flora function by PICRUSt. The results of blood physiological indicators showed that WBC, Neu and Bas in spring were significantly higher than those of other seasons. Fecal microbial sequencing revealed seasonal changes in gut microbial diversity and richness. Among them, Chinese merino fine-wool sheep had the highest gut microbes in summer. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla, and they were unaffected by seasonal fluctuations. LEfSE analysis was used to analyze representative microorganisms in different seasons. The Lachnospiraceae and its genera (Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Lachnospiraceae_AC2044_group, g_unclassified_f_ Lachnospiraceae) were representative microorganisms in the three seasons of spring, summer and winter with harsh environmental conditions; while in autumn with better environmental conditions, the Ruminococcaceae and its genus (Ruminococcaceae_UCG-009 and Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005) were the representative microorganism. In autumn, the ABC transporter and the pyruvate metabolic pathway were significantly higher than other seasons. Correlation analysis results showed that Lachnospiraceae participated in the ABC transporters metabolic pathway, which caused changes in the blood physiological indicators. Overall, our results showed that, in response to seasonal changes, Chinese merino fine-wool sheep under house-feeding have adjusted their own gut microbial community structure, causing changes in the metabolism, and thus changing the physiological conditions of the blood. In the cold season, producers should focus on regulating the nutritional level of feed, enhancing the level of butyric acid in young animals to increase the ABC transporter, resist the external harsh environment, and improve the survival rate.

Stall-Feeding of Sheep on Restricted Grazing: Effects on Performance and Serum Metabolites, Ruminal Fermentation, and Fecal Microbiota

“…This indicated that different feeding systems might change the abundance of bacteria in lamb fecal microbiota, although no influence was observed on the overall function of the microbiotas. In consistency with our results, Zhang et al [32] reported that lambs grazing on pasture exhibited similar functional profiles of the lamb fecal microbiota compared to those submitted to indoor feeding systems, despite changes in diversity, richness, and abundance of the bacterial community in lamb feces.…”

“…However, samples pertaining to the CONT group clustered significantly, separated from the other two sample groups, indicating that feeding systems could influence the composition of bacteria colonizing sheep intestinal tract. Moreover, the dominant bacteria in lamb fecal samples were Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Proteobacteria, which was consistent with findings obtained in Tibetan sheep [32] and dairy cows [64].…”

“…During the last six days of the experiment, fecal samples were collected. A three-day adaptation period was followed by three days of daily fecal sample collection occurring between 08:00 a.m. and 06:30 p.m. [ 32 ]. Fecal samples were manually collected from the rectum of six randomly selected lambs from each experimental group.…”

Microbial Community Structure and Metabolism of Xinjiang Fine-Wool Sheep based on high-throughput sequencing technology

“…In the recent ten years, with the progress of animal nutrition physiology research, Fungi also play an important role in the disease of hosts [38] or produce a result of interactions that are relevant to health and gut diseases of the host with bacteria [39]. It has been shown that animal fungi with a strong ability to degrade crude bers can effectively improve the host utilization of roughage [40]. In our study, Neocallimastigomycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota dominated at the fungal community phylum level.…”

Shifts in intestinal microbiota and improvement of sheep immune response to resist Salmonella infection using Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) overexpression

“…The intestinal bacteria are a very complex and diverse ecosystem consisting of millions of microorganisms that inhabit the mammalian gastrointestinal tract. The phyla Firmicutes (Gram-positive) and Bacteroidetes (Gram-negative) are the dominant phyla of sheep gut microorganisms that produce various metabolites capable of influencing the physiology of the host ( Zhang et al, 2022 ). Whereas bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, or Actinobacteria phyla are usually minor constituents.…”