Differences in gut microbiota composition, diversity, and predicted functional activity between wild and captive zoo...

Bats play an important role in global microbial ecology, as they are the host of various microbes. Carollia perspicillata is one of the most popular bat species in zoos. The influence of the captive environment on the gut microbiota of this species is underinvestigated. In this study, we compared gut microbiota composition, diversity, and the potential functional activity of wild and captive C. perspicillata from Panama and Russia (Moscow Zoo), respectively, based on high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing data. The abundance of 13 bacterial phyla and 35 bacterial genera significantly differed. Environment- and farm animal health-related bacteria (Mannheimia, unclassified Pasteurellaceae, Staphylococcus, and Mycoplasma) dominated wild bats, while bacteria important for public health (Bacteroides, Clostridium sensu stricto 1, and Acinetobacter) were higher in zoo bats. We also observed significantly greater alpha diversity in zoo bats, while there were no significant differences in beta diversity. These findings were accompanied by significant differences in the abundance of 32 functional pathways of gut bacteria, which are probably associated with the different diets of wild and zoo bats. This study shows that the rearing environment significantly affects the gut microbiota of C. perspicillata and highlights that the outcomes of microbiome research of captive bats need to be interpreted with care. Such differences in gut bacterial communities should be the basis for the development of new handling and veterinary care protocols, and also be the justification for further studies of the impact of microbiota of wild and zoo bats on One Health.