Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-03-13DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00297-5
Thomas Hartinger, Cátia Pacífico, Arife Sener-Aydemir, Gregor Poier, Susanne Kreuzer-Redmer, Georg Terler, Fenja Klevenhusen, Qendrim Zebeli
{"title":"Dietary carbohydrate sources differently prime the microbial ecosystem but not the epithelial gene expression profile along the complete gut of young calves.","authors":"Thomas Hartinger, Cátia Pacífico, Arife Sener-Aydemir, Gregor Poier, Susanne Kreuzer-Redmer, Georg Terler, Fenja Klevenhusen, Qendrim Zebeli","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00297-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00297-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Recent data indicated similar growth performance of young calves fed solely high-quality hay instead of a starter diet based on starchy ingredients. Yet, providing exclusively such distinct carbohydrate sources during early life might specifically prime the microbiota and gene expression along the gut of young calves, which remains to be explored. We investigated the effects of starter diets differing in carbohydrate composition, that is medium- or high-quality hay and without or with 70% concentrate supplementation (on fresh matter basis), across the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of weaned Holstein calves (100 ± 4 days of age) using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing and analyses of short-chain fatty acids and host epithelial gene expressions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The concentrate supplementation drastically decreased microbial diversity throughout the gut, which was also true to a much lesser extent for high-quality hay when compared to medium-quality hay in the foregut. Similarly, the factor concentrate strongly shaped the diet-associated common core microbiota, which was substantially more uniform along the gut with concentrate supplementation. The fermentation profile shifted towards less acetate but more propionate with concentrate supplementation in almost all gut sections, corresponding with higher abundances of starch-utilizing bacteria, while major fibrolytic clusters declined. Noteworthy, the n-butyrate proportion decreased in the rumen and increased in the colon with concentrate, showing an opposite, gut site-dependent effect. Both dietary factors modestly influenced the host epithelial gene expression.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Concentrate supplementation clearly primed the microbial ecosystem on a starch-targeted fermentation with characteristic genera occupying this niche along the entire GIT of calves, whereas the microbial differentiation due to hay quality was less distinct. Overall, changes in the microbial ecosystem were only marginally reflected in the targeted transcriptional profile of the host epithelium.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10935977/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140121517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-03-07DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00298-4
Shivanand Hegde, Kamil Khanipov, Emily A Hornett, Pornjarim Nilyanimit, Maria Pimenova, Miguel A Saldaña, Charissa de Bekker, George Golovko, Grant L Hughes
{"title":"Interkingdom interactions shape the fungal microbiome of mosquitoes.","authors":"Shivanand Hegde, Kamil Khanipov, Emily A Hornett, Pornjarim Nilyanimit, Maria Pimenova, Miguel A Saldaña, Charissa de Bekker, George Golovko, Grant L Hughes","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00298-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00298-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The mosquito microbiome is an important modulator of vector competence and vectoral capacity. Unlike the extensively studied bacterial microbiome, fungal communities in the mosquito microbiome (the mycobiome) remain largely unexplored. To work towards getting an improved understanding of the fungi associated with mosquitoes, we sequenced the mycobiome of three field-collected and laboratory-reared mosquito species (Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, and Culex quinquefasciatus).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our analysis showed both environment and host species were contributing to the diversity of the fungal microbiome of mosquitoes. When comparing species, Ae. albopictus possessed a higher number of diverse fungal taxa than Cx. quinquefasciatus, while strikingly less than 1% of reads from Ae. aegypti samples were fungal. Fungal reads from Ae. aegypti were < 1% even after inhibiting host amplification using a PNA blocker, indicating that this species lacked a significant fungal microbiome that was amplified using this sequencing approach. Using a mono-association mosquito infection model, we confirmed that mosquito-derived fungal isolates colonize Aedes mosquitoes and support growth and development at comparable rates to their bacterial counterparts. Strikingly, native bacterial taxa isolated from mosquitoes impeded the colonization of symbiotic fungi in Ae. aegypti suggesting interkingdom interactions shape fungal microbiome communities.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Collectively, this study adds to our understanding of the fungal microbiome of different mosquito species, that these fungal microbes support growth and development, and highlights that microbial interactions underpin fungal colonization of these medically relevent species.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10921588/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140061438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Removal of leftover feed shapes environmental microbiota and limits houseflies-mediated dispersion of pathogenic bacteria in sow breeding farms.","authors":"Yunke Li, Yinfeng Chen, Zhaohui Chen, Ying Yang, Zhenlong Wu","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00296-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00296-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Intensive swine breeding industry generates a complex environment where several microbial interactions occur and which constitutes a challenge for biosafety. Ad libitum feeding strategies and low levels of management contribute to residual and wasted feed for lactating sows, which provides a source of nutrients and microbial source for houseflies in warm climates. Due to the absence of the all-in/all-out system, the coexistence of sows of two production stages including gestating and lactating sows in the farrowing barn may have potential negative impacts. In this research, we evaluated the effects of lactating sow leftover on the environmental microbiota of the farrowing barn and the contribution of microbial environments to the gestating sow fecal bacterial structure with a 30-day-long treatment of timely removing lactating residual feed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Houseflies in the farrowing barn mediate the transmission of microorganisms from lactating sow leftover to multiple regions. Leuconostoc, Weissella, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus from the leftover which can produce exopolysaccharides, are more capable of environmental transmission than pathogenic microorganisms including Staphylococcus and Streptococcus and utilize houseflies to achieve spread in environmental regions of the farrowing barn. Leftover removal treatment blocked the microbial transmission chain mediated by houseflies, downregulated the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria including Escherichia-Shigella and Streptococcus among houseflies, environmental regions and fecal bacteria of gestating sows in the farrowing barn and effectively attenuate the increment of Weissella and RF39 relative abundance in gestating sow feces due to the presence of lactating sows.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Lactating sow leftover is a non-negligible microbial contributor of environment in farrowing barn whose transmission is mediated by houseflies. A 30-day-long treatment of removing lactating sow residual feed cause significant changes in the microbial structure of multiple environmental regions within the farrowing barn via altering the microbiota carried by houseflies. Meanwhile, lactating sow leftover affect the fecal microbial structure of gestating sows in the same farrowing barn, while removal of lactating sow leftover alleviates the contribution of microbial transmission.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10913660/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140041064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00295-7
Robert J Leigh, Aoife Corrigan, Richard A Murphy, Jules Taylor-Pickard, Colm A Moran, Fiona Walsh
{"title":"Yeast mannan rich fraction positively influences microbiome uniformity, productivity associated taxa, and lay performance.","authors":"Robert J Leigh, Aoife Corrigan, Richard A Murphy, Jules Taylor-Pickard, Colm A Moran, Fiona Walsh","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00295-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00295-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Alternatives to antibiotic as growth promoters in agriculture, such as supplemental prebiotics, are required to maintain healthy and high performing animals without directly contributing to antimicrobial resistance bioburden. While the gut microbiota of broiler hens has been well established and successfully correlated to performance, to our knowledge, a study has yet to be completed on the effect of prebiotic supplementation on correlating the mature laying hen productivity and microbiota. This study focused on establishing the impact of a yeast derived prebiotic, mannan rich fraction (MRF), on the cecal microbiota of late laying hens. This study benefitted from large sample sizes so intra- and intergroup variation effects could be statistically accounted for.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Taxonomic richness was significantly greater at all taxonomic ranks and taxonomic evenness was significantly lower for all taxonomic ranks in MRF-supplemented birds (P < 0.005). Use of principal coordinate analyses and principal component analyses found significant variation between treatment groups. When assessed for compositional uniformity (an indicator of flock health), microbiota in MRF-supplemented birds was more uniform than control birds at the species level. From a food safety and animal welfare perspective, Campylobacter jejuni was significantly lower in abundance in MRF-supplemented birds. In this study, species associated with high weight gain (an anticorrelator of performance in laying hens) were significantly lower in abundance in laying hens while health-correlated butyrate and propionate producing species were significantly greater in abundance in MRF-supplemented birds.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The use of prebiotics may be a key factor in controlling the microbiota balance limiting agri-food chain pathogen persistence and in promoting uniformity. In previous studies, increased α- and β-diversity indices were determinants of pathogen mitigation and performance. MRF-supplemented birds in this study established greater α- and β-diversity indices in post-peak laying hens, greater compositional uniformity across samples, a lower pathogenic bioburden and a greater abundance of correlators of performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10913240/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140029668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-02-28DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00299-3
Ning Cui, Xiao Yang, Hong Sui, Liugang Tan, Weihua Wang, Shuai Su, Lihong Qi, Qinghua Huang, Nataliia Hrabchenko, Chuantian Xu
{"title":"Virome characterization of diarrheic red-crowned crane (G. japonensis).","authors":"Ning Cui, Xiao Yang, Hong Sui, Liugang Tan, Weihua Wang, Shuai Su, Lihong Qi, Qinghua Huang, Nataliia Hrabchenko, Chuantian Xu","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00299-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00299-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The red-crowned crane is one of the vulnerable bird species. Although the captive population has markedly increased over the last decade, infectious diseases can lead to the death of young red-crowned cranes while few virological studies have been conducted.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using a viral metagenomics approach, we analyzed the virome of tissues of the dead captive red-crowned crane with diarrhea symptoms in Dongying Biosphere Reserve, Shandong Province, China and feces of individual birds breeding at the corresponding captive breeding center, which were pooled separately.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>There is much more DNA and RNA viruses in the feces than that of the tissues. RNA virus belonging to the families Picornaviridae, and DNA viruses belonging to the families Parvoviridae, associated with enteric diseases were detected in the tissues and feces. Genomes of the picornavirus, genomovirus, and parvovirus identified in the study were fully characterized, which further suggested that infectious viruses of these families were possibly presented in the diseased red-crowned crane.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>RNA virus belonging to the families Picornaviridae, and DNA viruses belonging to the families Genomoviridae and Parvoviridae were possibly the causative agent for diarrhea of red-crowned crane. This study has expanded our understanding of the virome of red-crowned crane and provides a baseline for elucidating the etiology for diarrhea of the birds.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10902971/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139991919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-02-21DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00294-8
Tara N Gaire, H Morgan Scott, Noelle R Noyes, Aaron C Ericsson, Michael D Tokach, Hayden William, Mariana B Menegat, Javier Vinasco, T G Nagaraja, Victoriya V Volkova
{"title":"Temporal dynamics of the fecal microbiome in female pigs from early life through estrus, parturition, and weaning of the first litter of piglets.","authors":"Tara N Gaire, H Morgan Scott, Noelle R Noyes, Aaron C Ericsson, Michael D Tokach, Hayden William, Mariana B Menegat, Javier Vinasco, T G Nagaraja, Victoriya V Volkova","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00294-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00294-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Age-associated changes in the gastrointestinal microbiome of young pigs have been robustly described; however, the temporal dynamics of the fecal microbiome of the female pig from early life to first parity are not well understood. Our objective was to describe microbiome and antimicrobial resistance dynamics of the fecal microbiome of breeding sows from early life through estrus, parturition and weaning of the first litter of piglets (i.e., from 3 to 53 weeks of age).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our analysis revealed that fecal bacterial populations in developing gilts undergo changes consistent with major maturation milestones. As the pigs progressed towards first estrus, the fecal bacteriome shifted from Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group- and UCG-002-dominated enterotypes to Treponema- and Clostridium sensu stricto 1-dominated enterotypes. After first estrus, the fecal bacteriome stabilized, with minimal changes in enterotype transition and associated microbial diversity from estrus to parturition and subsequent weaning of first litter piglets. Unlike bacterial communities, fecal fungal communities exhibited low diversity with high inter- and intra-pig variability and an increased relative abundance of certain taxa at parturition, including Candida spp. Counts of resistant fecal bacteria also fluctuated over time, and were highest in early life and subsequently abated as the pigs progressed to adulthood.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study provides insights into how the fecal microbial community and antimicrobial resistance in female pigs change from three weeks of age throughout their first breeding lifetime. The fecal bacteriome enterotypes and diversity are found to be age-driven and established by the time of first estrus, with minimal changes observed during subsequent physiological stages, such as parturition and lactation, when compared to the earlier age-related shifts. The use of pigs as a model for humans is well-established, however, further studies are needed to understand how our results compare to the human microbiome dynamics. Our findings suggest that the fecal microbiome exhibited consistent changes across individual pigs and became more diverse with age, which is a beneficial characteristic for an animal model system.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10882843/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139934480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-02-15DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00293-9
Calvin Ho-Fung Lau, Sabrina Capitani, Yuan-Ching Tien, Lou Ann Verellen, Munene Kithama, Hellen Kang, Elijah G Kiarie, Edward Topp, Moussa S Diarra, Michael Fruci
{"title":"Dynamic effects of black soldier fly larvae meal on the cecal bacterial microbiota and prevalence of selected antimicrobial resistant determinants in broiler chickens.","authors":"Calvin Ho-Fung Lau, Sabrina Capitani, Yuan-Ching Tien, Lou Ann Verellen, Munene Kithama, Hellen Kang, Elijah G Kiarie, Edward Topp, Moussa S Diarra, Michael Fruci","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00293-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00293-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>We had earlier described the growth-promoting and -depressive effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with low (12.5% and 25%) and high (50% and 100%) inclusion levels of black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM), respectively, in Ross x Ross 708 broiler chicken diets. Herein, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we investigated the effects of replacing SBM with increasing inclusion levels (0-100%) of BSFLM in broiler diets on the cecal bacterial community composition at each growth phase compared to broilers fed a basal corn-SBM diet with or without the in-feed antibiotic, bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD). We also evaluated the impact of low (12.5% and 25%) inclusion levels of BSFLM (LIL-BSFLM) on the prevalence of selected antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in litter and cecal samples from 35-day-old birds.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Compared to a conventional SBM-based broiler chicken diet, high (50 to100%) inclusion levels of BSFLM (HIL-BSFLM) significantly altered the cecal bacterial composition and structure, whereas LIL-BSFLM had a minimal effect. Differential abundance analysis further revealed that the ceca of birds fed 100% BSFLM consistently harbored a ~ 3 log-fold higher abundance of Romboutsia and a ~ 2 log-fold lower abundance of Shuttleworthia relative to those fed a BMD-supplemented control diet at all growth phases. Transient changes in the abundance of several potentially significant bacterial genera, primarily belonging to the class Clostridia, were also observed for birds fed HIL-BSFLM. At the finisher phase, Enterococci bacteria were enriched in the ceca of chickens raised without antibiotic, regardless of the level of dietary BSFLM. Additionally, bacitracin (bcrR) and macrolide (ermB) resistance genes were found to be less abundant in the ceca of chickens fed antibiotic-free diets, including either a corn-SBM or LIL-BSFLM diet.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Chickens fed a HIL-BSFLM presented with an imbalanced gut bacterial microbiota profile, which may be linked to the previously reported growth-depressing effects of a BSFLM diet. In contrast, LIL-BSFLM had a minimal effect on the composition of the cecal bacterial microbiota and did not enrich for selected ARGs. Thus, substitution of SBM with low levels of BSFLM in broiler diets could be a promising alternative to the antibiotic growth promoter, BMD, with the added-value of not enriching for bacitracin- and macrolide-associated ARGs.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10868003/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139742829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-02-06DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00289-5
Hugo F Monteiro, Caio C Figueiredo, Bruna Mion, José Eduardo P Santos, Rafael S Bisinotto, Francisco Peñagaricano, Eduardo S Ribeiro, Mariana N Marinho, Roney Zimpel, Ana Carolina da Silva, Adeoye Oyebade, Richard R Lobo, Wilson M Coelho, Phillip M G Peixoto, Maria B Ugarte Marin, Sebastian G Umaña-Sedó, Tomás D G Rojas, Modesto Elvir-Hernandez, Flávio S Schenkel, Bart C Weimer, C Titus Brown, Ermias Kebreab, Fábio S Lima
{"title":"An artificial intelligence approach of feature engineering and ensemble methods depicts the rumen microbiome contribution to feed efficiency in dairy cows.","authors":"Hugo F Monteiro, Caio C Figueiredo, Bruna Mion, José Eduardo P Santos, Rafael S Bisinotto, Francisco Peñagaricano, Eduardo S Ribeiro, Mariana N Marinho, Roney Zimpel, Ana Carolina da Silva, Adeoye Oyebade, Richard R Lobo, Wilson M Coelho, Phillip M G Peixoto, Maria B Ugarte Marin, Sebastian G Umaña-Sedó, Tomás D G Rojas, Modesto Elvir-Hernandez, Flávio S Schenkel, Bart C Weimer, C Titus Brown, Ermias Kebreab, Fábio S Lima","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00289-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00289-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Genetic selection has remarkably helped U.S. dairy farms to decrease their carbon footprint by more than doubling milk production per cow over time. Despite the environmental and economic benefits of improved feed and milk production efficiency, there is a critical need to explore phenotypical variance for feed utilization to advance the long-term sustainability of dairy farms. Feed is a major expense in dairy operations, and their enteric fermentation is a major source of greenhouse gases in agriculture. The challenges to expanding the phenotypic database, especially for feed efficiency predictions, and the lack of understanding of its drivers limit its utilization. Herein, we leveraged an artificial intelligence approach with feature engineering and ensemble methods to explore the predictive power of the rumen microbiome for feed and milk production efficiency traits, as rumen microbes play a central role in physiological responses in dairy cows. The novel ensemble method allowed to further identify key microbes linked to the efficiency measures. We used a population of 454 genotyped Holstein cows in the U.S. and Canada with individually measured feed and milk production efficiency phenotypes. The study underscored that the rumen microbiome is a major driver of residual feed intake (RFI), the most robust feed efficiency measure evaluated in the study, accounting for 36% of its variation. Further analyses showed that several alpha-diversity metrics were lower in more feed-efficient cows. For RFI, [Ruminococcus] gauvreauii group was the only genus positively associated with an improved feed efficiency status while seven other taxa were associated with inefficiency. The study also highlights that the rumen microbiome is pivotal for the unexplained variance in milk fat and protein production efficiency. Estimation of the carbon footprint of these cows shows that selection for better RFI could reduce up to 5 kg of diet consumed per cow daily, potentially reducing up to 37.5% of CH<sub>4</sub>. These findings shed light that the integration of artificial intelligence approaches, microbiology, and ruminant nutrition can be a path to further advance our understanding of the rumen microbiome on nutrient requirements and lactation performance of dairy cows to support the long-term sustainability of the dairy community.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10845535/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139699005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00292-w
Ming Z Fan, Laurence Cheng, Min Wang, Jiali Chen, Wenyi Fan, Fatmira Jashari, Weijun Wang
{"title":"Monomodular and multifunctional processive endocellulases: implications for swine nutrition and gut microbiome.","authors":"Ming Z Fan, Laurence Cheng, Min Wang, Jiali Chen, Wenyi Fan, Fatmira Jashari, Weijun Wang","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00292-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00292-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Poor efficiency of dietary fibre utilization not only limits global pork production profit margin but also adversely affects utilization of various dietary nutrients. Poor efficiency of dietary nutrient utilization further leads to excessive excretion of swine manure nutrients and results in environmental impacts of emission of major greenhouse gases (GHG), odor, nitrate leaching and surface-water eutrophication. Emission of the major GHG from intensive pork production contributes to global warming and deteriorates heat stress to pigs in tropical and sub-tropical swine production. Exogenous fibre enzymes of various microbial cellulases, hemicellulases and pectinases have been well studied and used in swine production as the non-nutritive gut modifier feed enzyme additives in the past over two decades. These research efforts have aimed to improve growth performance, nutrient utilization, intestinal fermentation as well as gut physiology, microbiome and health via complementing the porcine gut symbiotic microbial fibrolytic activities towards dietary fibre degradation. The widely reported exogenous fibre enzymes include the singular use of respective cellulases, hemicellulases and pectinases as well as their multienzyme cocktails. The currently applied exogenous fibre enzymes are largely limited by their inconsistent in vivo efficacy likely due to their less defined enzyme stability and limited biochemical property. More recently characterized monomodular, multifunctional and processive endoglucanases have the potential to be more efficaciously used as the next-generation designer fibre biocatalysts. These newly emerging multifunctional and processive endoglucanases have the potential to unleash dietary fibre sugar constituents as metabolic fuels and prebiotics, to optimize gut microbiome, to maintain gut permeability and to enhance performance in pigs under a challenged environment as well as to parallelly unlock biomass to manufacture biofuels and biomaterials.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10837961/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139673761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Animal microbiomePub Date : 2024-01-24DOI: 10.1186/s42523-024-00290-y
Vetriselvi Sampath, Sungbo Cho, Jinuk Jeong, Seyoung Mun, Choon Han Lee, Rafael Gustavo Hermes, Apichaya Taechavasonyoo, Natasja Smeets, Susanne Kirwan, Kyudong Han, In Ho Kim
{"title":"Dietary Bacillus spp. supplementation to both sow and progenies improved post-weaning growth rate, gut function, and reduce the pro-inflammatory cytokine production in weaners challenged with Escherichia coli K88.","authors":"Vetriselvi Sampath, Sungbo Cho, Jinuk Jeong, Seyoung Mun, Choon Han Lee, Rafael Gustavo Hermes, Apichaya Taechavasonyoo, Natasja Smeets, Susanne Kirwan, Kyudong Han, In Ho Kim","doi":"10.1186/s42523-024-00290-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s42523-024-00290-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The use of probiotics (PRO) in late gestation sow and their impact on progenies' performance during the post-weaning stage has received more attention from the researchers recently. This study aimed to analyze the effect of probiotic mixture (Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis) on both sow and offspring's performance.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>First experiment (Exp.1) was conducted from the 100th day of gestation through to post-weaning. A total of twenty sows and their litters were assigned to one of two dietary treatments, Control (CON) based diet and PRO- CON+ 0.05% probiotic mixture. Dietary treatments were arranged in a split-plot pattern with sow and weaner treatment (CON and PRO diet) as the main and sub plot. Exp.2. E. coli challenge study was carried out two weeks after weaning with 40 piglets. Dietary treatments remained same while all pigs were orally administered with a 1.5 ml suspension of 1010 CFU of K88 strain of E. coli per ml.</p><p><strong>Result: </strong>PRO group sow showed significantly decreased backfat thickness difference and body weight difference after farrowing and at the end of weaning d21. The nutrient digestibility of PRO group sows was significantly higher at the end of weaning. Moreover, piglets born from PRO group sow showed higher weaning weight and tend to increase average daily gain at the end of d21. The addition of mixed probiotic in sow and weaner diet had suppressed the production of TNF-α and interleukin-6 in E. coli challenged pigs. The phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in E. coli -challenged pigs were highly abundant while, the relative abundance of clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 at genus level was significantly reduced by the inclusion of probiotic in both the sow and weaner diet. Also, taxonomic distribution analysis showed significantly lower prevalence of Clostridium and Brachyspira and higher prevalence of Lactobacilli in E. coli-challenged pigs that were born from PRO group sow and fed CON and PRO weaner diet.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study reveals that the inclusion of 0.05% mixed probiotics (Bacillus spp.) to both sow and their progenies diet would be more beneficial to enhance the post-weaning growth rate, gut health, and immune status of E. coli challenged pigs.</p>","PeriodicalId":72201,"journal":{"name":"Animal microbiome","volume":"6 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10809626/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139545897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}