Temporal and nutritional effects on the weaner pig ileal microbiota

Abstract

Background The porcine gastrointestinal microbiota has been linked to both host health and performance. Most pig gut microbiota studies target faecal material, which is not representative of microbiota dynamics in other discrete gut sections. The weaning transition period in pigs is a key development stage, with gastrointestinal problems being prominent after often sudden introduction to a solid diet. A better understanding of both temporal and nutritional effects on the small intestinal microbiota is required. Here, the development of the porcine ileal microbiota under differing levels of dietary protein was observed over the immediate post-weaning period. Results Ileal digesta samples were obtained at post-mortem prior to weaning day (day − 1) for baseline measurements. The remaining pigs were introduced to either an 18% (low) or 23% (high) protein diet on weaning day (day 0) and further ileal digesta sampling was carried out at days 5, 9 and 13 post-weaning. We identified significant changes in microbiome structure (P = 0.01), a reduction in microbiome richness (P = 0.02) and changes in the abundance of specific bacterial taxa from baseline until 13 days post-weaning. The ileal microbiota became less stable after the introduction to a solid diet at weaning (P = 0.036), was highly variable between pigs and no relationship was observed between average daily weight gain and microbiota composition. The ileal microbiota was less stable in pigs fed the high protein diet (P = 0.05), with several pathogenic bacterial genera being significantly higher in abundance in this group. Samples from the low protein and high protein groups did not cluster separately by their CAZyme (carbohydrate-active enzyme) composition, but GH33 exosialidases were found to be significantly more abundant in the HP group (P = 0.006). Conclusions The weaner pig ileal microbiota changed rapidly and was initially destabilised by the sudden introduction to feed. Nutritional composition influenced ileal microbiota development, with the high protein diet being associated with an increased abundance of significant porcine pathogens and the upregulation of GH33 exosialidases—which can influence host-microbe interactions and pathogenicity. These findings contribute to our understanding of a lesser studied gut compartment that is not only a key site of digestion, but also a target for the development of nutritional interventions to improve gut health and host growth performance during the critical weaning transition period.

Dietary Supplementation with Botanical Blends Modified Intestinal Microbiota and Metabolomics of Weaned Pigs Experimentally Infected with Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

“…ETEC colonize in the small intestine, thus these results indicate that ETEC inoculation perturbed the gut microbial community more in the ileum than in the cecum [ 51 ]. Our results agree with findings of a previous study that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria are predominantly abundant in ileal digesta of weaned pigs [ 52 ]. With reduced microbial richness and evenness in ileal digesta of pigs infected with ETEC, differences in microbial taxa abundance were expected between sham and ETEC infected pigs.…”

Capture and Ex-Situ Analysis of Environmental Biofilms in Livestock Buildings

“…Overall, in the absence of additional biological replicates, the insights brought by 16S sequencing were limited to the description of the microbial community. The results showed more richness and evenness in steel than PVC, and this was in line with the taxonomy results, with the presence of a large proportion of bacteria on coupons, such as Lactobacillales, Clostridiales, Bacillales, Actinomycetales, Pseudomonadales, Bacteroidales, and Enterobacteriales, already found in other pig studies [47][48][49]. A bias in this community profiling arises from the high quantities of bacterial eDNA from feces on the surface that can be sequenced in addition to the living bacteria that multiply in such biofilms.…”