Dataset Information

Gut microbiota resilience in horse athletes following holidays out to pasture.

ABSTRACT: Elite horse athletes that live in individual boxes and train and compete for hours experience long-term physical and mental stress that compromises animal welfare and alters the gut microbiota. We therefore assessed if a temporary period out to pasture with conspecifics could improve animal welfare and in turn, favorably affect intestinal microbiota composition. A total of 27 athletes were monitored before and after a period of 1.5 months out to pasture, and their fecal microbiota and behavior profiles were compared to those of 18 horses kept in individual boxes. The overall diversity and microbiota composition of pasture and control individuals were temporally similar, suggesting resilience to environmental challenges. However, pasture exposure induced an increase in Ruminococcus and Coprococcus that lasted 1-month after the return to individual boxes, which may have promoted beneficial effects on health and welfare. Associations between the gut microbiota composition and behavior indicating poor welfare were established. Furthermore, withdrawn behavior was associated with the relative abundances of Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group and Clostridiales family XIII. Both accommodate a large part of butyrate-producing bacterial genera. While we cannot infer causality within this study, arguably, these findings suggest that management practices maintained over a longer period of time may moderate the behavior link to the gut ecosystem beyond its resilience potential.

SUBMITTER: Mach N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7930273 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Gut microbiota resilience in horse athletes following holidays out to pasture.

Mach Núria N Lansade Léa L Bars-Cortina David D Dhorne-Pollet Sophie S Foury Aline A Moisan Marie-Pierre MP Ruet Alice A

Scientific reports 20210303 1

Elite horse athletes that live in individual boxes and train and compete for hours experience long-term physical and mental stress that compromises animal welfare and alters the gut microbiota. We therefore assessed if a temporary period out to pasture with conspecifics could improve animal welfare and in turn, favorably affect intestinal microbiota composition. A total of 27 athletes were monitored before and after a period of 1.5 months out to pasture, and their fecal microbiota and behavior p ...[more]

PMID: 33658551

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Project description:The management of competition horses in New Zealand often involves rotations of short periods of stall confinement and concentrate feeding, with periods of time at pasture. Under these systems, horses may undergo abrupt dietary changes, with the incorporation of grains or concentrate feeds to the diet to meet performance needs, or sudden changes in the type of forage fed in response to a lack of fresh or conserved forage. Abrupt changes in dietary management are a risk factor for gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances, potentially due to the negative effects observed on the population of GI microbiota. In the present study, the faecal microbiota of horses was investigated to determine how quickly the bacterial communities; (1) responded to dietary change, and (2) stabilised following abrupt dietary transition. Six Thoroughbred mares were stabled for six weeks, consuming freshly cut pasture (weeks 1, 3 and 5), before being abruptly transitioned to conserved forage-based diets, both offered ad libitum. Intestinal markers were administered to measure digesta transit time immediately before each diet change. The conserved forage-based diets were fed according to a 3 × 3 Latin square design (weeks 2, 4 and 6), and comprised a chopped ensiled forage fed exclusively (Diet FE) or with whole oats (Diet FE + O), and perennial ryegrass hay fed with whole oats (Diet H + O). Faecal samples were collected at regular intervals from each horse following the diet changes. High throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to evaluate the faecal microbiota. There were significant differences in alpha diversity across diets (p < 0.001), and a significant effect of diet on the beta diversity (ANOSIM, p = 0.001), with clustering of samples observed by diet group. There were differences in the bacterial phyla across diets (p < 0.003), with the highest relative abundances observed for Firmicutes (62-64%) in the two diets containing chopped ensiled forage, Bacteroidetes (32-38%) in the pasture diets, and Spirochaetes (17%) in the diet containing hay. Major changes in relative abundances of faecal bacteria appeared to correspond with the cumulative percentage of intestinal markers retrieved in the faeces as the increasing amounts of digesta from each new diet transited the animals. A stable faecal microbiota profile was observed in the samples from 96 h after abrupt transition to the treatment diets containing ensiled chopped forage. The present study confirmed that the diversity and community structure of the faecal bacteria in horses is diet-specific and resilient following dietary transition and emphasised the need to have modern horse feeding management that reflects the ecological niche, particularly by incorporating large proportions of forage into equine diets.

Project description:Weaning has been described as one of the most stressful events in the life of horses. Given the importance of the interaction between the gut-brain axis and gut microbiota under stress, we evaluated (i) the effect of two different weaning methods on the composition of gut microbiota across time and (ii) how the shifts of gut microbiota composition after weaning affect the host. A total of 34 foals were randomly subjected to a progressive (P) or an abrupt (A) weaning method. In the P method, mares were separated from foals at progressively increasing intervals every day, starting from five min during the fourth week prior to weaning and ending with 6 h during the last week before weaning. In the A method, mares and foals were never separated prior to weaning (0 d). Different host phenotypes and gut microbiota composition were studied across 6 age strata (days -30, 0, 3, 5, 7, and 30 after weaning) by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Results revealed that the beneficial species belonging to Prevotella, Paraprevotella, and Ruminococcus were more abundant in the A group prior to weaning compared to the P group, suggesting that the gut microbiota in the A cohort was better adapted to weaning. Streptococcus, on the other hand, showed the opposite pattern after weaning. Fungal loads, which are thought to increase the capacity for fermenting the complex polysaccharides from diet, were higher in P relative to A. Beyond the effects of weaning methods, maternal separation at weaning markedly shifted the composition of the gut microbiota in all foals, which fell into three distinct community types at 3 days post-weaning. Most genera in community type 2 (i.e., Eubacterium, Coprococcus, Clostridium XI, and Blautia spp.) were negatively correlated with salivary cortisol levels, but positively correlated with telomere length and N-butyrate production. Average daily gain was also greater in the foals harboring a community type 2 microbiota. Therefore, community type 2 is likely to confer better stress response adaptation following weaning. This study identified potential microbial biomarkers that could predict the likelihood for physiological adaptations to weaning in horses, although causality remains to be addressed.

Project description:Understanding mechanisms governing the resistance and resilience of microbial communities is essential for predicting their ecological responses to environmental disturbances. Although we have a good understanding of such issues for soil and lake ecosystems, how ecological resistance and resilience regulate the microbiota in the fish gut ecosystem remains unclear. Using the zebrafish model, we clarified the potential mechanisms governing the gut microbiota after exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Here, we explored the ecological resistance and resilience of gut microbiota in zebrafish exposed to different concentrations of AgNPs (i.e., 10, 33 and 100 μg/liter) for 15, 45, 75 days. The high-throughput sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed that AgNP exposure significantly reduced the α-diversity of gut microbiota and resulted in obvious dynamics of community composition and structure. However, the rebound of zebrafish gut microbiota was pushed toward an alternative state after 15 days of AgNP exposure. We found that homogeneous selection was a more prevalent contributor in driving gut community recovery after AgNP exposure. The resilience and resistance of gut microbiota responses to AgNP disturbance might be mainly determined by the predominant keystone taxa such as Acinetobacter and Gemmata. This study not only expanded our understanding of fish gut microbiota's responses to pollutants but also provided new insights into maintaining host-microbiome stability during environmental perturbations. IMPORTANCE Understanding the ecological mechanisms governing the resistance and resilience of microbial communities is a key issue to predict their responses to environmental disturbances. Using the zebrafish model, we wanted to clarify the potential mechanisms governing the resistance and resilience of gut microbiota after exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). We found that AgNP contamination significantly reduced the α-diversity of gut microbiota and resulted in obvious changes in community composition. The resilience and resistance of gut microbiota to AgNPs might be associated with the predominant keystone taxa (e.g., Acinetobacter and Gemmata). This study greatly expanded our understanding of how fish gut microbiota responds to environmental perturbations and maintains stability.

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Gut microbiota resilience in horse athletes following holidays out to pasture.

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Gut microbiota resilience in horse athletes following holidays out to pasture.

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