BOARD INVITED REVIEW: The pig microbiota and the potential for harnessing the power of the microbiome to improve growth and health1

Abstract

A variety of microorganisms inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of animals including bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, and viruses. Pioneers in gut microbiology have stressed the critical importance of diet:microbe interactions and how these interactions may contribute to health status. As scientists have overcome the limitations of culture-based microbiology, the importance of these interactions has become more clear even to the extent that the gut microbiota has emerged as an important immunologic and metabolic organ. Recent advances in metagenomics and metabolomics have helped scientists to demonstrate that interactions among the diet, the gut microbiota, and the host to have profound effects on animal health and disease. However, although scientists have now accumulated a great deal of data with respect to what organisms comprise the gastrointestinal landscape, there is a need to look more closely at causative effects of the microbiome. The objective of this review is intended to provide: 1) a review of what is currently known with respect to the dynamics of microbial colonization of the porcine gastrointestinal tract; 2) a review of the impact of nutrient:microbe effects on growth and health; 3) examples of the therapeutic potential of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics; and 4) a discussion about what the future holds with respect to microbiome research opportunities and challenges. Taken together, by considering what is currently known in the four aforementioned areas, our overarching goal is to set the stage for narrowing the path towards discovering how the porcine gut microbiota (individually and collectively) may affect specific host phenotypes.

Effects of Maternal Supplementation with Rare Earth Elements during Late Gestation and Lactation on Performances, Health, and Fecal Microbiota of the Sows and Their Offspring

“…The role of intestinal microbiota in host physiological health has been recognized [38,39], and pioneers in gut microbiology have emphasized the significance of diet: the microbe interactions may contribute to health status [40]. In this study, Clostridia were abundant in sows from the control group, and Clostridial flagella were known to exert a peculiar role in adhesion and pathogenicity [41].…”

Dietary Inulin and Trichuris suis Infection Promote Beneficial Bacteria Throughout the Porcine Gut

“…An optimal GM composition is able to maintain an equilibrium despite gastrointestinal challenges such as bacterial pathogens or parasites, which otherwise would result in a rapid population shift (Pluske et al, 2018). Diet is one of the major factors affecting microbial composition, and alterations in macronutrients will affect the composition (Aluthge et al, 2019). Additionally, prebiotics such as inulin with perceived health benefits have the potential to directly alter the microbiota through proliferation of the already resident beneficial bacteria (Nowland et al, 2019).…”

A gene co-association network regulating gut microbial communities in a Duroc pig population

“…Therefore, ignoring the crosstalk between bacterial and protist communities, but also the contribution of gene-by-gene interactions shaping the pig gut microbial ecosystem. In their review, Aluthge et al (2019) [ 12 ] identified the lack of sophisticated computational and bioinformatics approaches as the major bottleneck to look beyond compositional changes and instead understand the functional causative role of the pig gut microbiome.…”