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Introduction: Protection of horse welfare during transport is crucial. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of head and neck restraint on behavior and airway bacteria. Methods: In a randomized crossover study, six healthy Thoroughbreds were transported by road for 22 h in an individual bay with tight head restraint (50 cm short-rope) or loose head restraint (95 cm long-rope). Behavioral parameters relating to head position, eating, and stress were monitored during transportation. Tracheal wash samples were obtained 6 days before and immediately after transport for bacterial culture and metagenomic analysis. Results and discussion: Compared to before transport, bacterial load (CFU/mL) after transport was significantly increased in the short-rope group (p = 0.04), whereas no changes were observed in the long-rope group. Transport significantly reduced Simpson index at phylum, class, order, and family levels in both groups (p < 0.001) of tracheal microbiota. In both groups, this reduction was associated with increases in the dominant members of relative abundance at phylum (Firmicutes: +24% in long-rope and +14% in short-rope), class (Bacilli: +20% in long-rope and +22% in short-rope) and family (Streptococcaceae: +22% in long-rope and +23% in short-rope) levels. Licking behavior during transportation with short-rope restraint was more frequent than in horses with long-rope restraint. These results suggest loose head restraint during transportation is likely to ameliorate stress and mitigate the associated increased bacterial load in the lower airways associated with transport. Further, head position during transportation is likely a more important determinant of airway hygiene and distress than duration of travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gut microbiome is a dynamic ecosystem shaped by various factors, including diet, sex, and environment. This system plays a crucial role in host health, such that perturbation in the form of antibiotics can lead to a vast array of negative outcomes. Accordingly, a growing body of work seeks to develop interventions to protect the microbiome during antibiotic exposure. While it is well established that antibiotics can disrupt the microbiome in the short term, how the impact of antibiotics is modulated by factors such as diet, sex, and environment is poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed how sex, diet and early life environment (vendor of origin) modulate the impact and recovery of the microbiome in mice treated with oral amoxicillin. Utilizing 16S rRNA gene sequencing and bioinformatic analyses, we looked at the microbiome response to antibiotics under high-sugar and high-fat (Western) and standard high-fiber mouse (Chow) diets in male and female C57BL/6 from Jackson Laboratory, and female mice from Charles River Laboratories. The microbiome composition of each set of mice had a distinct pre-antibiotic starting point, depending on vendor, sex, and diet. These differences were further exacerbated by antibiotic exposure and revealed that each group responded differently to this perturbation. In particular, we found that the Western diet microbiome had an exacerbated response to antibiotics with greater changes in alpha, and beta diversity, and microbial composition when compared to the antibiotic-treated Chow diet cohort. In particular, we detected blooms in Enterobacteriaceae, Streptococcaceae, and Peptostreptococcaceae that were not found in the Chow diet. The response to antibiotics on each diet also appeared to be vendor and sex dependent. Charles River female mice had less Bifidobacteriaceae, Clostridia_UCG.014, and Clostridiaceae compared to Jackson Laboratory females in a Western diet, while female mice had more Bacteroides, Bilophila, and Parasutterella compared to male mice. In a narrow sense, these findings underscore the importance of considering vendor source, diet, and sex when examining antibiotics' impact on mice. The broader implications suggest that we will likely need to utilize patient-specific microbiome-informed approaches in the development of human therapeutics to safeguard the microbiome during antibiotic exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis, making early diagnosis crucial for improving patient outcomes. While the gut microbiome, including bacteria and viruses, is believed to be essential in cancer pathogenicity, the potential contribution of the gut virome to PC remains largely unexplored. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the gut viral compositional and functional profiles between PC patients and healthy controls, based on fecal metagenomes from two publicly available data sets comprising a total of 101 patients and 82 healthy controls. Our results revealed a decreasing trend in the gut virome diversity of PC patients with disease severity. We identified significant alterations in the overall viral structure of PC patients, with a meta‐analysis revealing 219 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) showing significant differences in relative abundance between patients and healthy controls. Among these, 65 vOTUs were enriched in PC patients, and 154 were reduced. Host prediction revealed that PC‐enriched vOTUs preferentially infected bacterial members of Veillonellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Fusobacteriaceae, and Streptococcaceae, while PC‐reduced vOTUs were more likely to infect Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Clostridiaceae, Oscillospiraceae, and Peptostreptococcaceae. Furthermore, we constructed random forest models based on the PC‐associated vOTUs, achieving an optimal average area under the curve (AUC) of up to 0.879 for distinguishing patients from controls. Through additional 10 public cohorts, we demonstrated the reproducibility and high specificity of these viral signatures. Our study suggests that the gut virome may play a role in PC development and could serve as a promising target for PC diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. Future studies should further explore the underlying mechanisms of gut virus‐bacteria interactions and validate the diagnostic models in larger and more diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Tamanduas (Tamandua tetradactyla) belong to the specialized placental myrmecophages. There is not much information about their intestinal microbiome. Moreover, due to their food specialization, it is difficult to create an adequate diet under breeding conditions. Therefore, we used 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to analyze the fecal microbiome of captive Southern Tamanduas from four locations in the Czech Republic and evaluated the impact of the incoming diet and facility conditions on microbiome composition. Together with the microbiome analysis, we also quantified and identified cultivable commensals. The anteater fecal microbiome was dominated by the phyla Bacillota and Bacteroidota, while Pseudomonadota, Spirochaetota, and Actinobacteriota were less abundant. At the taxonomic family level, Lachnospiraceae, Prevotellaceae, Bacteroidaceae, Oscillospiraceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Spirochaetaceae, Ruminococcaceae, Leuconostocaceae, and Streptococcaceae were mainly represented in the fecal microbiome of animals from all locations. Interestingly, Lactobacillaceae dominated in the location with a zoo-made diet. These animals also had significantly lower diversity of gut microbiome in comparison with animals from other locations fed mainly with a complete commercial diet. Moreover, captive conditions of analyzed anteater included other factors such as the enrichment of the diet with insect-based products, probiotic interventions, the presence of other animals in the exposure, which can potentially affect the composition of the microbiome and cultivable microbes. In total, 63 bacterial species from beneficial commensal to opportunistic pathogen were isolated and identified using MALDI-TOF MS in the set of more than one thousand selected isolates. Half of the detected species were present in the fecal microbiota of most animals, the rest varied across animals and locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactococcus petauri has emerged as a pathogen affecting farmed fish. In this case report, L. petauri was isolated from Lepomis gibbosus captured in Lake Candia, located in Piedmont, Northwestern Italy. Initially identified as L. garvieae using conventional methods like RAPID 32 ID STREP and MALDI-TOF, molecular analysis based on sequencing of the 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) confirmed it as L. petauri. The study also assessed the isolated strain's pathogenicity by examining hemolysin and capsule cluster genes, revealing only hemolysin 2 amplicon; notably, the fish exhibited no lesions or pathological alterations. The L. petauri strain from this study displayed resistance to several antibiotics, being sensitive only to ampicillin, amoxicillin, florfenicol, and G-penicillin. This research provides new insights into host range of L. petauri and raises awareness of potential public health implications, particularly concerning zoonotic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition and function of the intestinal microbiota are major determinants of human health and are strongly influenced by diet, antibiotic treatment, lifestyle and geography. Nevertheless, we currently have only little data on microbiomes of non-westernized communities. We assess the stool microbiota composition in 59 children aged 2–5 years from the Adadle district of Ethiopia, Somali Regional State. Here, milk and starch-rich food are predominant components of the local diet, where the inhabitants live a remote, traditional agropastoral lifestyle. Microbiota composition, function and the resistome were characterized by both 16S rRNA gene amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing and compared to 1471 publicly available datasets from children living in traditional, transitional, and industrial communities with different subsistence strategies. Samples from the Adadle district are low in Bacteroidaceae, and Prevotellaceae, the main bacterial representatives in the feces of children living in industrialized and non-industrialized communities, respectively. In contrast, they had a higher relative abundance in Streptococcaceae, Bifidobacteriaceae and Erysipelatoclostridiaceae. Further, genes involved in degradation pathways of lactose, d-galactose and simple carbohydrates were enriched. Overall, our study revealed a unique composition of the fecal microbiota of these agropastoral children, highlighting the need to further characterize the fecal bacterial composition of human populations living different lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactococcus petauri has emerged as a pathogen affecting farmed fish. In this case report, L. petauri was isolated from Lepomis gibbosus captured in Lake Candia, located in Piedmont, Northwestern Italy. Initially identified as L. garvieae using conventional methods like RAPID 32 ID STREP and MALDI-TOF, molecular analysis based on sequencing of the 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) confirmed it as L. petauri. The study also assessed the isolated strain’s pathogenicity by examining hemolysin and capsule cluster genes, revealing only hemolysin 2 amplicon; notably, the fish exhibited no lesions or pathological alterations. The L. petauri strain from this study displayed resistance to several antibiotics, being sensitive only to ampicillin, amoxicillin, florfenicol, and G-penicillin. This research provides new insights into host range of L. petauri and raises awareness of potential public health implications, particularly concerning zoonotic potential.

The effects of β-mannanase supplementation in metabolizable energy (ME)-reduced diets containing xylanase-phytase were investigated on growth performance, fecal score, ultra-sounded backfat thickness and loin depth, blood profile, apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD), digesta passage rate, and fecal microbiome in grower pigs (n = 40, 26.09 ± 0.96 kg) randomly assigned within 4 treatments: a control diet containing isolated phytase and xylanase valued at 40 kcal of ME/kg (CD0), CD0 + β-mannanase (0.3 g/kg valued at 30 kcal of ME/kg) (CD70), CD0 + β-mannanase (0.3 g/kg valued at 45 kcal of ME/kg) (CD85), and CD0 + β-mannanase (0.3 g/kg valued at 60 kcal of ME/kg) (CD100). Growth performance was not affected in pigs fed ME-reduced diets containing β-mannanase. Pigs with CD100 had lower serum IL-1β concentration, and higher IL-10 was observed in pigs on CD0 than those fed β-mannanase. Coefficients of ATTD, and ATTD of DM and CP were higher in animals fed CD85 or CD100. Pigs with CD85 had higher alpha diversity richness but lower Firmicutes:Bacteroidota ratio. Acidaminococcaceae and Ruminococcaceae were more abundant in pigs fed CD0, but lower for Christensenellaceae NSJ-63 and NSJ-63 sp014384805. Pigs in CD85 showed higher Bacteroidaceae and Prevotella abundance, and lower for Streptococcaceae and Streptococcus. In conclusion, supplementation of β-mannanase in diets containing xylanase-phytase saved 85 to 100 kcal of ME/kg by supporting growth performance and improving nutrient digestibility in grower pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats play an important ecological role all over the world, and their presence is thought to be an indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Microorganisms play an important role in maintaining the delicate ecological balance of the earth. But frequently, they have a negative public image as a vector of disease-causing microbes. Megaderma lyra, a common carnivorous bat, was chosen to study the impact of their microbial flora. The oral cavity and intestinal bacterial florawas collected. Nutrient agar, Blood agar, MacConkeyagar, and Salmonella shigella agar culture medium were prepared to identify the aerobic organisms. Bacterial species isolated from M.lyra harboured twelve species belonging to three different families; ten from Enterobacteriaceae, one from Streptococcaceae and one from Pseudomonadaceae. Studies on the oral aerobic flora of this bat species revealed, that they have the same microbial flora as any mammal, including humans. Dietary items of carnivorous bats are also a major influencing factor on bacterial oral cavity bacterial floral composition. This work made an attempt of focus the bacterial flora of M.lyra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence supports the observational associations of gut microbiota with the risk of COVID‐19; however, it is unclear whether these associations reflect a causal relationship. This study investigated the association of gut microbiota with COVID‐19 susceptibility and severity. Data were obtained from a large‐scale gut microbiota data set (n = 18 340) and the COVID‐19 Host Genetics Initiative (n = 2 942 817). Causal effects were estimated with inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR‐Egger, and weighted median, and sensitivity analyses were implemented with Cochran's Q test, MR‐Egger intercept test, MR‐PRESSO, leave‐one‐out analysis, and funnel plots. For COVID‐19 susceptibility, IVW estimates suggested that Gammaproteobacteria (odds ratio [OR] = 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89–0.99, p = 0.0295] and Streptococcaceae (OR = 0.95, 95% CI, 0.92–1.00, p = 0.0287) had a reduced risk, while Negativicutes (OR = 1.05, 95% CI, 1.01–1.10, p = 0.0302), Selenomonadales (OR = 1.05, 95% CI, 1.01–1.10, p = 0.0302), Bacteroides (OR = 1.06, 95% CI, 1.01–1.12, p = 0.0283), and Bacteroidaceae (OR = 1.06, 95% CI, 1.01–1.12, p = 0.0283) were associated with an increased risk (all p < 0.05, nominally significant). For COVID‐19 severity, Subdoligranulum (OR = 0.80, 95% CI, 0.69–0.92, p = 0.0018), Cyanobacteria (OR = 0.85, 95% CI, 0.76–0.96, p = 0.0062), Lactobacillales (OR = 0.87, 95% CI, 0.76–0.98, p = 0.0260), Christensenellaceae (OR = 0.87, 95% CI, 0.77–0.99, p = 0.0384), Tyzzerella3 (OR = 0.89, 95% CI, 0.81–0.97, p = 0.0070), and RuminococcaceaeUCG011 (OR = 0.91, 95% CI, 0.83–0.99, p = 0.0247) exhibited negative correlations, while RikenellaceaeRC9 (OR = 1.09, 95% CI, 1.01–1.17, p = 0.0277), LachnospiraceaeUCG008 (OR = 1.12, 95% CI, 1.00–1.26, p = 0.0432), and MollicutesRF9 (OR = 1.14, 95% CI, 1.01–1.29, p = 0.0354) exhibited positive correlations (all p < 0.05, nominally significant). Sensitivity analyses validated the robustness of the above associations. These findings suggest that gut microbiota might influence the susceptibility and severity of COVID‐19 in a causal way, thus providing novel insights into the gut microbiota‐mediated development mechanism of COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods and plays an important role in the human diet. Buffalo milk represents 15% of worldwide milk production and is an important source of bioactive compounds. Buffalo milk has a great market in the Mediterranean area, and dairy products, such as Mozzarella and Ricotta di Bufala Campana, obtained with the Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk, are acknowledged with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This study aimed to characterize, using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, the milk core microbiome of water buffalo rises in the Amaseno Valley included in the Mozzarella PDO region. The principal features of the core and the auxiliary buffalo milk microbiome are the predominance of Firmicutes and Lactococcus, one of the most important lactic acid bacteria (LAB) taxa in the dairy industry. The comparative analysis of the core microbiomes indicated that the milk of the Italian Mediterranean Buffalo and other mammals share the presence of Streptococcus-affiliated OTUs (operational taxonomic units). Our data also demonstrated that the core microbiome of milk samples collected from PDO and non-PDO regions differ in the number and type of taxa. Key points: • Buffalo milk and their derivate products are becoming more popular worldwide. • Dairy locations and practice management affect the structure of the milk microbiota. • Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis allows to identify the features of the Italian Buffalo milk microbiome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaginal flora plays a vital role in human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and progression to cancer. To reveal a role of the vaginal flora in HPV persistence and clearance, 90 patients with HPV infection and 45 healthy individuals were enrolled in this study and their vaginal flora were analyzed. Women with HPV infection were treated with Lactobacillus in the vaginal environment as a supplement to interferon therapy. Our results indicated that patients with high risk HPV (Hr-HPV) 16/18 infection had a significantly higher alpha diversity compared with the healthy control (p < 0.01), while there was no significant difference between the non-Hr-HPV16/18 group and the controls (p > 0.05). Patients with multiple HPV infection had insignificantly higher alpha diversity compared with single HPV infection (p > 0.05). The vaginal flora of patients with HPV infection exhibited different compositions when compared to the healthy controls. The dominant bacteria with the highest prevalence in HPV-positive group were Lactobacillus iners (n = 49, 54.44%), and the top 3 dominant bacteria in the HPV-persistent group were Lactobacillus iners (n = 34, 53.13%), Sneathia amnii (n = 9, 14.06%), and Lactobacillus delbrueckii (n = 3, 4.69%). Patients with HPV clearance had significantly lower alpha diversity, and the flora pattern was also different between groups displaying HPV clearance vs. persistence. The patients with persistent HPV infection had significantly higher levels of Bacteroidaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Helicobacteraceae, Neisseriaceae, Streptococcaceae (family level), and Fusobacterium, Bacteroides, Neisseria, and Helicobacter (genus level) than patients who had cleared HPV (p < 0.05). Importance: Our study revealed differences in vaginal flora patterns are associated with HPV persistence and its clearance. Interferon plus probiotics can greatly improve virus clearance in some patients. Distinguishing bacterial features associated with HPV clearance in patients would be helpful for early intervention and reverse persistent infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine for the first time the microbiota in artisanal-type and industrial-type Gidotyri cheeses and investigate the influence of the cheese-making practices on their composition using culture-independent techniques. The microbiota present in artisanal with commercial starters (Artisanal_CS, n = 15), artisanal with in-house starters (Artisanal_IHS, n = 10) and industrial (Ind., n = 9) Gidotyri cheese samples were analyzed using a targeted metagenomic approach (16S rRNA gene). The Ind. Gidotyri cheese microbiota were less complex, dominated by the Streptococcaceae family (91%) that was more abundant compared to the artisanal Gidotyri cheeses (p < 0.05). Artisanal cheeses were more diverse compositionally with specific bacterial species being prevalent to each subtype. Particularly, Loigolactobacillus coryniformis (OTU 175), Secundilactobacillus malefermentans (OTU 48), and Streptococcus parauberis (OTU 50) were more prevalent in Artisanal_IHS cheeses compared to Artisanal_CS (p ≤ 0.001) and Ind. (p < 0.01) Gidotyri cheeses. Carnobacterium maltaromaticum (OTU 23) and Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. hoffmannii (OTU 268) were more prevalent in Artisanal_CS cheeses compared to Artisanal_IHS cheeses (p < 0.05) and Ind. cheeses (p < 0.05). Hafnia alvei (OTU 13) and Acinetobacter colistiniresistens (OTU 111) tended to be more prevalent in Artisanal_CS compared to the other two cheese groups (p < 0.10). In conclusion, higher microbial diversity was observed in the artisanal-type Gidotyri cheeses, with possible bacterial markers specific to each subtype identified with potential application to traceability of the manufacturing processes' authenticity and cheese quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gut microbiota plays an important role in pig health and performance, particularly in host growth and fecundity. In present study, the characteristics and diversity of gut microbiota in fine purebred boars from three-way crossbred "Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire" pigs were investigated using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that the three breeds of boars shared similar gut microbiota, yet there remain slight differences at the family/genus level. At the family level, Ruminococcaceae, Streptococcaceae and Lactobacillaceae have the highest abundance in Landrace, while Rikenellaceae and f_p_251_o5 have the highest abundance in Duroc. The abundance of Prevotellaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Spirochaetaceae in intestinal of Yorkshire were higher than that of Landrace and Duroc. In addition, ten and six biomarkers were identified in the microbiota across breeds and months of age, respectively. Moreover, we evaluated the effect of gut microbiota on boar semen quality, revealing that Duroc had the strongest sperm vitality, significantly associated with the genus Rikenellaceae_PC9_gut_group. In addition, the spermatogenesis ability and sperm production improved gradually along with increase of age. In conclusion, this study provides a reference for understanding the gut microbiota composition of purebred boars used for three-way crosses and their impact on semen performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is significant interest in altering the course of cardiometabolic disease development via gut microbiomes. Nevertheless, the highly abundant phage members of the complex gut ecosystem -which impact gut bacteria- remain understudied. Here, we show gut virome changes associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS), a highly prevalent clinical condition preceding cardiometabolic disease, in 196 participants by combined sequencing of bulk whole genome and virus like particle communities. MetS gut viromes exhibit decreased richness and diversity. They are enriched in phages infecting Streptococcaceae and Bacteroidaceae and depleted in those infecting Bifidobacteriaceae. Differential abundance analysis identifies eighteen viral clusters (VCs) as significantly associated with either MetS or healthy viromes. Among these are a MetS-associated Roseburia VC that is related to healthy control-associated Faecalibacterium and Oscillibacter VCs. Further analysis of these VCs revealed the Candidatus Heliusviridae, a highly widespread gut phage lineage found in 90+% of participants. The identification of the temperate Ca. Heliusviridae provides a starting point to studies of phage effects on gut bacteria and the role that this plays in MetS. Here, the authors characterize gut viromes in a cohort of individuals with metabolic syndrome, which they find associated with a highly widespread family of gut bacteriophages they name Candidatus Heliusviridae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]