Exploring gastric bacterial community in young pigs.

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Animal Science
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• The gastrointestinal microbiota is vital for host health and disease prevention.
• Intestinal microbiota research is extensive, but the gastric microbiota remains understudied.
• Understanding gastric microbiota can improve animal healthcare, reduce antibiotic use, and protect consumer health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To descriptively analyze the gastric microbiota in healthy pigs.
• To identify microbial differences within distinct stomach niches (mucosa vs. content).

Main Methods:

• Collected gastric mucosal and content samples from four healthy weaned pigs.
• Isolated bacterial DNA and sequenced the V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene using Ion Torrent PGM.
• Analyzed data using Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) pipeline with unsupervised and supervised approaches.

Main Results:

• Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum across all samples.
• Significant differences in bacterial community composition were observed between mucosal and content samples (p < 0.05).
• No significant differences were found among different mucosal regions.
• Mucosal samples were characterized by the genera Herbiconiux and Brevundimonas.

Conclusions:

• Gastric microbiota composition differs between stomach lining and contents.
• The genera Herbiconiux and Brevundimonas may play a role in the pig gastric environment.
• Larger trials are needed to validate these findings and expand knowledge of the gastric microbiota.