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. 2023 Feb 12;13(4):642.
doi: 10.3390/ani13040642.

Characterization of the Nero Siciliano Pig Fecal Microbiota after a Liquid Whey-Supplemented Diet

Giuseppe Tardiolo  1 , Orazio Romeo  2 , Alessandro Zumbo  1 , Marco Di Marsico  3 , Anna Maria Sutera  1 , Riccardo Aiese Cigliano  3 , Andreu Paytuví  3 , Enrico D'Alessandro  1
Affiliations

Characterization of the Nero Siciliano Pig Fecal Microbiota after a Liquid Whey-Supplemented Diet

Giuseppe Tardiolo et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The utilization of dairy by-products as animal feed, especially in swine production, is a strategy to provide functional ingredients to improve gut health. This study explored the potential effect of a liquid whey-supplemented diet on the fecal microbiota of eleven pigs belonging to the Nero Siciliano breed. Five pigs were assigned to the control group and fed with a standard formulation feed, whereas six pigs were assigned to the experimental group and fed with the same feed supplemented with liquid whey. Fecal samples were collected from each individual before the experimental diet (T0), and one (T1) and two (T2) months after the beginning of the co-feed supplementation. Taxonomic analysis, based on the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA, showed that pig feces were populated by a complex microbial community with a remarkable abundance of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes phyla and Prevotella, Lactobacillus, Clostridium, and Treponema genera. Alpha and beta diversity values suggested that the experimental diet did not significantly affect the overall fecal microbiota diversity. However, analysis of abundance at different time points revealed significant variation in several bacterial genera, suggesting that the experimental diet potentially affected some genera of the microbial community.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Nero Siciliano pig; fecal microbiota; liquid whey supplementation; metagenomics; microbial community; next-generation sequencing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box plots of the alpha diversity index. Each plot represents the interquartile range while the line that splits the box into two parts represents the median. Plots are graphically presented according to feeding condition and time point.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PCoA plot based on Bray-Curtis distances of the fecal microbial communities of Nero Siciliano pigs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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