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. 2023 Dec 27;13(1):23027.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-50429-1.

Characteristics of gut microbiota in captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from infant to elderly

Sarisa Klinhom #  1 , Sirawit Sriwichaiin #  2   3   4 , Sasiwan Kerdphoo  3   4 , Jaruwan Khonmee  1   5 , Nipon Chattipakorn  2   3   4 , Siriporn C Chattipakorn  6   7   8 , Chatchote Thitaram  9   10   11
Affiliations

Characteristics of gut microbiota in captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from infant to elderly

Sarisa Klinhom et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Gut microbiota play an important role in the health and disease of Asian elephants, however, its characteristics at each stage of life have not been thoroughly investigated in maintaining and regulating health of elephants. This study, therefore, aimed to characterize the profiles of the gut microbiota of captive Asian elephants from infants to the elderly. Gut microbiota were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing from the feces of captive Asian elephants with varying age groups, including infant calves, suckling calves, weaned calves, subadult and adult elephants, and geriatric elephants. The diversity of the gut microbiota was lowest in infants, stable during adulthood, and slightly decreased in the geriatric period. The gut microbiota of the infant elephants was dominated by milk-fermenting taxa including genus Bifidobacterium of family Bifidobacteriaceae together with genus Akkermansia. The fiber-fermenting taxa such as Lachnospiraceae_NK3A20_group were found to be increased in suckling elephants in differential abundance analysis by Analysis of Compositions of Microbiomes with Bias Correction (ANCOM-BC). The gut microbiota profiles after weaning until the adult period has been uniform as indicated by no significant differences in beta diversity between groups. However, the composition of the gut microbiota was found to change again in geriatric elephants. Understanding of the composition of the gut microbiota of captive Asian elephants at various life stages could be beneficial for promoting good health throughout their lifespan, as well as ensuring the welfare of captive elephants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Alpha diversity and beta diversity of gut microbiota of healthy captive elephants in Northern Thailand categorized by age group (Group 1—infant calves; Group 2—suckling calves; Group 3—weaned calves; Group 4—subadult and adult elephants; Group 5—geriatric elephants). (A–D) Alpha diversity including (A) Pielou’s evenness, (B) Observed feature, (C) phylogenetic diversity, and (D) Shannon’s index. (E–H) Beta diversity including (E) Bray curtis, (F) Jaccard, (G) unweighted UniFrac, and (H) weighted UniFrac. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative abundance of gut microbiota of captive Asian elephants in Northern Thailand at phylum (A), family (C), and genus (B) level. Elephants categorized by age group (Group 1—infant calves; Group 2—suckling calves; Group 3—weaned calves; Group 4—subadult and adult elephants; Group 5—geriatric elephants).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The differential abundance of gut microbiota of healthy captive elephants in Northern Thailand between age groups (Group 1—infant calves; Group 2—suckling calves; Group 3—weaned calves; Group 4—subadult and adult elephants; Group 5—geriatric elephants). The data are presented as Log fold change by using Group 4 as the reference group. Full lists of significant differential abundances are provided in Supplementary Table 3.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Log fold change of taxa in association with blood parameters in subadult and adult healthy captive elephants in Northern Thailand. Only log fold changes greater than 0.5 are shown in this figure. Full lists of significant associations are provided in Supplementary Table 4.
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