The Microbial Ecology of Liver Abscesses in Cattle

Emerging evidence regarding the microbiome of liver abscesses (LAs) and the gastrointestinal tract of cattle suggests that a reexamination of the etiopathogenesis of LAs is warranted. Microbiome studies using 16S rRNA gene sequencing have demonstrated that LAs are highly polymicrobial, and hundreds of bacterial taxa are typically found in these lesions at slaughter. Fusobacteria and Bacteroidetes are equally dominant phyla within LAs, followed by Proteobacteria. The gut-liver axis (ie, bidirectional crosstalk between the gut and liver) is linked with a variety of liver diseases in humans, and investigation of host-microbiome interactions in cattle may lead to improved methods of prevention.