Intestine microbiota and SCFAs response in naturally-infected plateau yaks.

Abstract

Diarrhea is a severe bovine disease, globally prevalent in farm animals with a decrease in milk production and a low fertility rate.spp. are important zoonotic agents of bovine diarrhea. However, little is known about microbiota and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) changes in yaks infected withspp. Therefore, we performed 16S rRNA sequencing and detected the concentrations of SCFAs in-infected yaks. Results showed that over 80,000 raw and 70,000 filtered sequences were prevalent in yak samples. Shannon (<0.01) and Simpson (<0.01) were both significantly higher ininfected yaks. A total of 1072 amplicon sequence variants were shared in healthy and infected yaks. There were 11 phyla and 58 genera that differ significantly between the two yak groups. A total of 235 enzymes with a significant difference in abundance (<0.001) were found between healthy and infected yaks. KEGG L3 analysis discovered that the abundance of 43 pathways was significantly higher, while 49 pathways were significantly lower in-infected yaks. The concentration of acetic acid (<0.05), propionic acid (<0.05), isobutyric acid (<0.05), butyric acid (<0.05), and isovaleric acid was noticeably lower in infected yaks, respectively. The findings of the study revealed thatinfection causes gut dysbiosis and results in a significant drop in the SCFAs concentrations in yaks with severe diarrhea, which may give new insights regarding the prevention and treatment of diarrhea in livestock.