The bacterial communities associated with fecal types and body weight of rex rabbits

Abstract

Rex rabbit is an important small herbivore for fur and meat production. However, little is known about the gut microbiota in rex rabbit, especially regarding their relationship with different fecal types and growth of the hosts. We characterized the microbiota of both hard and soft feces from rex rabbits with high and low body weight by using the Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V4 region of the 16S rDNA. High weight rex rabbits possess distinctive microbiota in hard feces, but not in soft feces, from the low weight group. We detected the overrepresentation of several genera such as YS2/Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidales and underrepresentation of genera such as Anaeroplasma spp. and Clostridiaceae in high weight hard feces. Between fecal types, several bacterial taxa such as Ruminococcaceae, and Akkermansia spp. were enriched in soft feces. PICRUSt analysis revealed that metabolic pathways such as “stilbenoid, diarylheptanoid, gingerol biosynthesis” were enriched in high weight rabbits, and pathways related to “xenobiotics biodegradation” and “various types of N-glycan biosynthesis” were overrepresented in rabbit soft feces. Our study provides foundation to generate hypothesis aiming to test the roles that different bacterial taxa play in the growth and caecotrophy of rex rabbits.

Cassava foliage affects the microbial diversity of Chinese indigenous geese caecum using 16S rRNA sequencing

“…This result was consistent with the study on intestinal microbiome in ducks, showing increased abundance of Bacteroides and decreased abundance of Firmicutes in the caecum24. The similar dietary effects on intestinal microbiome with a higher abundance of Bacteroidetes and a lower abundance of Firmicutes have been reported in rabbits, goats and humans, and the different nutrient compositions might lead to the different biodiversities161726. In the present study, the abundance of Proteobacteria in the CF5 and CF10 groups was significantly higher than that in the CK group.…”

“…Compared with conventional 16S rRNA technique, HT-NGS 16S rRNA technique can achieve high coverage, which can reflect the microbiome structure more accurately. HT-NGS technology has been used to study the intestinal microbiome of chickens, rabbits, goats and dairy cows15161718. However, to date, there are only few studies reported the microbial community in the caecum of geese by HT-NGS technology.…”

Gut microbiota of newborn piglets with intrauterine growth restriction have lower diversity and different taxonomic abundances

“…Therefore, the abundance of Bacteroides in the small intestine is important for the healthy growth of piglets. These findings are similar to a study by Zeng et al (), which showed that low BW rex rabbits had a lower abundance of Bacteroides than controls. In addition, our study found that the proportions of several bacterial taxa belonging to the Ruminococcaceae family (e.g.…”

Gut Brain Axis and Its Microbiota Regulation in Mammals and Birds

“…12,13 Published studies describing the known bacterial taxa reported the predominance of Clostridia (especially Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae), Bacteroidetes, and Akkermansia in rabbits. [14][15][16][17] In a recent study, the fecal microbiota of ferrets was analyzed using the bacterial cultivation method. The predominant bacterial groups were Clostridium acetobutylicum, Helicobacter spp, and Lactobacillus spp.…”