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The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insufficient maternal milk is one of the important reasons for the low survival rate of young Asian elephants. Finding the optimal break milk supplementation for young Asian elephants is a matter of urgency. In our study, we investigated the microbiomes of young Asian elephants on di...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Chengbo, Chen, Junmin, Wu, Qian, Xu, Bo, Huang, Zunxi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36899773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050916
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author Zhang, Chengbo
Chen, Junmin
Wu, Qian
Xu, Bo
Huang, Zunxi
author_facet Zhang, Chengbo
Chen, Junmin
Wu, Qian
Xu, Bo
Huang, Zunxi
author_sort Zhang, Chengbo
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insufficient maternal milk is one of the important reasons for the low survival rate of young Asian elephants. Finding the optimal break milk supplementation for young Asian elephants is a matter of urgency. In our study, we investigated the microbiomes of young Asian elephants on different milk-containing diets (elephant milk only, elephant milk–plant mixed feed, and goat milk–plant mixed feed). Our results suggested that goat milk is not suitable for young elephants, and yak milk may be an ideal source of supplemental milk for Asian elephants. ABSTRACT: Evaluating the association between milk-containing diets and the microbiomes of young Asian elephants could assist establishing optimal breast milk supplementation to improve offspring survival rates. The microbiomes of young Asian elephants on different milk-containing diets (elephant milk only, elephant milk–plant mixed feed, and goat milk–plant mixed feed) were investigated using high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and phylogenetic analysis. Microbial diversity was lower in the elephant milk-only diet group, with a high abundance of Proteobacteria compared to the mixed-feed diet groups. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were dominant in all groups. Spirochaetae, Lachnospiraceae, and Rikenellaceae were abundant in the elephant milk–plant mixed-feed diet group, and Prevotellaceae was abundant in the goat milk–plant mixed-feed diet group. Membrane transport and cell motility metabolic pathways were significantly enriched in the elephant milk–plant mixed-feed diet group, whereas amino acid metabolism and signal transduction pathways were significantly enriched in the goat milk–plant mixed-feed diet group. The intestinal microbial community composition and associated functions varied significantly between diets. The results suggest that goat milk is not suitable for young elephants. Furthermore, we provide new research methods and directions regarding milk source evaluation to improve elephant survival, wellbeing, and conservation.
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spelling pubmed-100002382023-03-11 The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets Zhang, Chengbo Chen, Junmin Wu, Qian Xu, Bo Huang, Zunxi Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Insufficient maternal milk is one of the important reasons for the low survival rate of young Asian elephants. Finding the optimal break milk supplementation for young Asian elephants is a matter of urgency. In our study, we investigated the microbiomes of young Asian elephants on different milk-containing diets (elephant milk only, elephant milk–plant mixed feed, and goat milk–plant mixed feed). Our results suggested that goat milk is not suitable for young elephants, and yak milk may be an ideal source of supplemental milk for Asian elephants. ABSTRACT: Evaluating the association between milk-containing diets and the microbiomes of young Asian elephants could assist establishing optimal breast milk supplementation to improve offspring survival rates. The microbiomes of young Asian elephants on different milk-containing diets (elephant milk only, elephant milk–plant mixed feed, and goat milk–plant mixed feed) were investigated using high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and phylogenetic analysis. Microbial diversity was lower in the elephant milk-only diet group, with a high abundance of Proteobacteria compared to the mixed-feed diet groups. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were dominant in all groups. Spirochaetae, Lachnospiraceae, and Rikenellaceae were abundant in the elephant milk–plant mixed-feed diet group, and Prevotellaceae was abundant in the goat milk–plant mixed-feed diet group. Membrane transport and cell motility metabolic pathways were significantly enriched in the elephant milk–plant mixed-feed diet group, whereas amino acid metabolism and signal transduction pathways were significantly enriched in the goat milk–plant mixed-feed diet group. The intestinal microbial community composition and associated functions varied significantly between diets. The results suggest that goat milk is not suitable for young elephants. Furthermore, we provide new research methods and directions regarding milk source evaluation to improve elephant survival, wellbeing, and conservation. MDPI 2023-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC10000238/ /pubmed/36899773 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050916 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zhang, Chengbo
Chen, Junmin
Wu, Qian
Xu, Bo
Huang, Zunxi
The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title_full The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title_fullStr The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title_full_unstemmed The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title_short The Gut Microbiota of Young Asian Elephants with Different Milk-Containing Diets
title_sort gut microbiota of young asian elephants with different milk-containing diets
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36899773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050916
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