A Single Faecal Microbiota Transplantation Altered the Microbiota of Weaned Pigs

Abstract

Weaning is a stressful time for piglets, often leading to weight loss and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. A leading cause for these post-weaning problems is enteric dysbiosis and methods to improve piglet health at this crucial developmental stage are needed. This study aimed to determine whether an enteric dysbiosis caused by weaning could be corrected via a faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy piglets from a previous wean. Two or four focal piglets per litter were assigned to one of two treatments; FMT two days post weaning (n = 21; FMT) or a control which received saline two days post weaning (n = 21; CON). FMT consisted of homogenised donor faeces administered orally at 3 mL/kg. Weaning occurred at 18 days of age and weights and faecal samples were collected on days 18, 20, 24 and 35. 16S rRNA amplicon analysis was used to assess the faecal microbiota of piglets. FMT increased Shannon's diversity post weaning (p < 0.001) and reduced the scratch score observed at 24 days of age (p < 0.001). The bacterial populations significantly differed in composition at each taxonomic level. In FMT pigs, significant increases in potentially pathogenic Escherichia coli were observed. However, increases in beneficial bacteria Lactobacillus mucosae and genera Fibrobacteres and Bacteroidetes were also observed in FMT treated animals. To our knowledge, this is the first study to observe a significant effect on piglet faecal microbiota following a single FMT administered post weaning. Therefore, FMT post weaning can potentially alleviate enteric dysbiosis.

Keywords: enteric dysbiosis; enteric microbiota; microbiota transplantation; pigs; weaning.

Figure 1

Schematic of the experimental timeline. Piglets were divided into two groups at weaning, control animals (CON; n = 21) or faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT; n = 21), the FMT procedure is described in the materials and methods section. On day 3, 18, 20, 24 and 35, all piglets were weighed. Faecal samples, scratch scores and diarrhoea incidence were collected from day 18 onwards as stated in the figure above.

Figure 2

nMDS ordination of faecal bacterial genera from piglets at 18 (triangle), 20 (inverted triangle), 24 (square) and 35 (diamond) days of age. nMDS ordinations attempt to place all samples in an arbitrary two-dimensional space such that their relative distances apart match the corresponding pairwise similarities. Hence, the closer the two samples are in the ordination, the more similar their overall bacterial communities. “Stress” values (Kruskal’s formula 1) reflect the difficulty involved in compressing the sample relationship into the two-dimensional ordination.

Figure 3

Comparison of Shannon diversity (a), Pielou’s evenness (b), and number of taxa (c) between piglets at age 18, 20, 24 and 35 days at the genus level. Means with different superscripts (a, b, c) are significantly different (p < 0.05).

Figure 4

Abundance (%) of bacterial phyla present in the faeces of pigs at 18, 20, 24 and 35 days of age. The bacterial phlya within the legend are arranged in the same order as they appear in the bar chart.

Figure 5

nMDS ordination of faecal bacterial genera from control (square) and FMT (circle) piglets at (A) 24 days of age and (B) 35 days of age.

Figure 6

Comparison of Shannon diversity (a), Pielou’s evenness (b), and number of taxa (c) between piglets in treatments CON and FMT at 24 and 35 days of age at the genus level. Means with different superscripts (a, b, c) are significantly different (p < 0.05).