Microbiota in different digestive tract of paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) are related to their functions.

Paddlefish has high economic and ecological value. In this study, microbial diversity and community structure in intestine, stomach, and mouth of paddlefish were detected using high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that the diversity and richness indices decreased along the digestive tract, and significantly lower proportion of those were observed in intestine. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla. In top 10 phyla, there was no significant difference in mouth and stomach. But compared with intestine, there were significant differences in 8 of the 10 phyla, and Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes increased significantly, while Proteobacteria decreased significantly. There was no dominant genus in mouth and stomach, but Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 and uncultured_bacterium_o_Bacteroidales was predominant in intestine. In conclusion, the species and abundance of microbiota in the mouth and stomach of paddlefish were mostly the same, but significantly different from those in intestine. Moreover, there was enrichment of the dominant bacteria in intestine.

Intestinal microbiota disturbance affects the occurrence of African swine fever.

Intestinal microbiota not only participates in the digestion and absorption of nutrients, but also plays an important role in regulating host metabolism and health. The current study aimed to explore the intestinal microbiota characteristics in pigs infected with African swine fever. Below the same term, fresh fecal samples of sick and healthy pigs were collected. Primers were designed and PCR was extracted based on the 16S rDNA gene of bacteria by Illumina NovaSeq sequencing platform. The results showed that the bacterial alpha diversity index of healthy pigs was significantly higher than that of sick pigs (p < 0.05). On the phylum taxa, dominant bacteria more than 98.5% in the two groups are composed of Firmicutes, Spirobacteria, and Bacteroides, of which the abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes decreased and Spiricobacteria increased extremely significant in sick pigs (p < 0.01). On the genus taxa, the relative abundance of Oscillospira, Streptococcus and Roseburia decreased significantly (p < 0.05). Most notably, Treponema performed excellently in distinguishing pigs infected with African swine fever with the abundance increased extremely significantly (p < 0.01). In conclusion, African swine fever could alter the abundance of dominant bacteria in pigs, and Treponema may be one of the important inducers for swine pathogenicity. HighlightsThe bacterial population composition in sick pigs and healthy pigs was basically similar, but the relative abundance of dominant bacteria was significantly difference.ASF could alter the abundance of dominant bacteria in pigs, and Treponema may be one of the important inducers for swine pathogenicity.These results will provide further evidence for the ASF infection in local pig farms and provide reference for their microecological control, which has important practical significance and social value for effective control of ASF, stability of pig production and guarantee of market supply.

Different Intestinal Microbiota with Growth Stages of Three-Breed Hybrid Pig.

The changes of intestinal microbiota are closely related to the growth and development of animals. The current study is aimed at exploring the composition of the microbial community of pigs at different growth stages. Fresh fecal samples of three-breed hybrid pigs at three developmental stages (60, 120, and 180 days of age) were collected. The microbial composition was analyzed based on the 16S rDNA gene of bacteria Illumina NovaSeq sequencing platform. The results showed that the intestinal microbiota of pigs was distributed in 22 phyla, 46 classes, 84 orders, 147 families, and 287 genera. Firmicutes, Bacteroides, Spirochaetae, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla. Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, SMB53, Oscillospira, and Prevotella were the dominant genera. Among them, the abundance of Lactobacillus and SMB53 increased first and then decreased, while the change of Oscillospira was opposite. In addition, the abundance of Streptococcus increased while that of Prevotella decreased gradually. Moreover, with the increase of time and body weight, the microbial diversity showed a decreasing trend. In conclusion, the intestinal microbial composition of the three-breed hybrid pigs was relatively stable during the fattening stage, but there were significant differences in abundance.