Fecal microbiota transplantation provides new insight into wildlife conservation

Guo, Wei; Ren, Ke; Ning, Ruihong; Li, Caiwu; Zhang, Hemin; Li, Desheng; Xu, Lin; Sun, Feng-Hui; Dai, Min

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01234

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 93 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Recently, oral delivery of the fecal microbiome transplant has helped to successfully change the altered gut microbiome of koalas to become similar to that of the wild ones 79 . Another way to deliver microbiome transplants to wildlife can be based on coprophagia 80 . In conclusion, differences in both composition and diversity that were detected between elephant groups, as a response to each human interference, require further investigation to interpret this study’s results in relation to stress hormones and the longevity of large mammals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic interferences lead to gut microbiome dysbiosis in Asian elephants and may alter adaptation processes to surrounding environments

Moustafa

Chel

Thu

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human activities interfere with wild animals and lead to the loss of many animal populations. Therefore, efforts have been made to understand how wildlife can rebound from anthropogenic disturbances. An essential mechanism to adapt to environmental and social changes is the fluctuations in the host gut microbiome. Here we give a comprehensive description of anthropogenically induced microbiome alterations in Asian elephants (n = 30). We detected gut microbial changes due to overseas translocation, captivity and deworming. We found that microbes belonging to Planococcaceae had the highest contribution in the microbiome alterations after translocation, while Clostridiaceae, Spirochaetaceae and Bacteroidia were the most affected after captivity. However, deworming significantly changed the abundance of Flavobacteriaceae, Sphingobacteriaceae, Xanthomonadaceae, Weeksellaceae and Burkholderiaceae. These findings may provide fundamental ideas to help guide the preservation tactics and probiotic replacement therapies of a dysbiosed gut microbiome in Asian elephants. More generally, these results show the severity of anthropogenic activities at the level of gut microbiome, altering the adaptation processes to new environments and the subsequent capability to maintain normal physiological processes in animals.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic interferences lead to gut microbiome dysbiosis in Asian elephants and may alter adaptation processes to surrounding environments

Moustafa

Chel

Thu

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Responsible applications of gut microbiome interventions to animal conservation practices will depend on knowing whether the captive microbiome is truly involved in modulating a given health concern. The gold standard causal evidence requires experimental microbiome manipulations in captive animals: changing the microbiome either through fecal transplants, antibiotics, or probiotics then measuring host phenotypes of interest to assess whether existing health problems are ameliorated [ 28 , 79 – 81 , 92 ]. Similar experimental tests could be employed to assess whether microbial manipulations prior to reintroduction improve survival in the natural environment.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possibilities and limits for using the gut microbiome to improve captive animal health

Díaz

Reese

2021

anim microbiome

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Because of its potential to modulate host health, the gut microbiome of captive animals has become an increasingly important area of research. In this paper, we review the current literature comparing the gut microbiomes of wild and captive animals, as well as experiments tracking the microbiome when animals are moved between wild and captive environments. As a whole, these studies report highly idiosyncratic results with significant differences in the effect of captivity on the gut microbiome between host species. While a few studies have analyzed the functional capacity of captive microbiomes, there has been little research directly addressing the health consequences of captive microbiomes. Therefore, the current body of literature cannot broadly answer what costs, if any, arise from having a captive microbiome in captivity. Addressing this outstanding question will be critical to determining whether it is worth pursuing microbial manipulations as a conservation tool. To stimulate the next wave of research which can tie the captive microbiome to functional and health impacts, we outline a wide range of tools that can be used to manipulate the microbiome in captivity and suggest a variety of methods for measuring the impact of such manipulation preceding therapeutic use. Altogether, we caution researchers against generalizing results between host species given the variability in gut community responses to captivity and highlight the need to understand what role the gut microbiome plays in captive animal health before putting microbiome manipulations broadly into practice.

show abstract

“…This approach is burgeoning in the field of conservation biology, where anthropogenic effects such as habitat fragmentation ( Barelli et al, 2015 ) and increasing temperatures ( Fontaine et al, 2018 ) have been shown to alter host-associated microbial communities. Integrating microbiome research into conservation science is beneficial at multiple levels from health monitoring ( Kreisinger et al, 2015 ; Bragg et al, 2020 ) to microbiome transplants in captive individuals ( Trevelline et al, 2019 ; Guo et al, 2020 ). Therefore, characterizing the current bacterial communities in endangered host species is crucial to identify future changes in microbial diversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Geography and Captivity on Scat Bacterial Communities in the Imperiled Channel Island Fox

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With developing understanding that host-associated microbiota play significant roles in individual health and fitness, taking an interdisciplinary approach combining microbiome research with conservation science is increasingly favored. Here we establish the scat microbiome of the imperiled Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis) and examine the effects of geography and captivity on the variation in bacterial communities. Using high throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we discovered distinct bacterial communities in each island fox subspecies. Weight, timing of the sample collection, and sex contributed to the geographic patterns. We uncovered significant taxonomic differences and an overall decrease in bacterial diversity in captive versus wild foxes. Understanding the drivers of microbial variation in this system provides a valuable lens through which to evaluate the health and conservation of these genetically depauperate foxes. The island-specific bacterial community baselines established in this study can make monitoring island fox health easier and understanding the implications of inter-island translocation clearer. The decrease in bacterial diversity within captive foxes could lead to losses in the functional services normally provided by commensal microbes and suggests that zoos and captive breeding programs would benefit from maintaining microbial diversity.

show abstract

Fecal microbiota transplantation provides new insight into wildlife conservation

Cited by 25 publications

References 93 publications

Anthropogenic interferences lead to gut microbiome dysbiosis in Asian elephants and may alter adaptation processes to surrounding environments

Anthropogenic interferences lead to gut microbiome dysbiosis in Asian elephants and may alter adaptation processes to surrounding environments

Possibilities and limits for using the gut microbiome to improve captive animal health

Effect of Geography and Captivity on Scat Bacterial Communities in the Imperiled Channel Island Fox

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About