Abstract
Hindgut microorganisms in newborn calves play an important role in the development of immunity and metabolism, and optimization of performance. However, knowledge of the extent to which microbiome colonization of the calf intestine is dependent on maternal characteristics is limited. In this study, placenta, umbilical cord, amniotic fluid, colostrum, cow feces, and calf meconium samples were collected from 6 Holstein cow-calf pairs. Microbial composition was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, and maternal transfer characteristics assessed using SourceTracker based on Gibbs sampling to fit the joint distribution using the mean proportions of each sample with meconium as the “sink” and other sample types as different “sources.” Alpha and beta diversity analyses revealed sample type-specific microbiome features: microbial composition of the placenta, umbilical cord, amniotic fluid, colostrum, and calf feces were similar, but differed from cow feces (p < 0.05). Compared with profiles of meconium vs. placenta, meconium vs. umbilical cord, and meconium vs. colostrum, differences between the meconium and amniotic fluid were most obvious. SourceTracker analysis revealed that 23.8 ± 2.21% of the meconium OTUs matched those of umbilical cord samples, followed by the meconium-placenta pair (15.57 ± 2.2%), meconium-colostrum pair (14.4 ± 1.9%), and meconium-amniotic fluid pair (11.2 ± 1.7%). The matching ratio between meconium and cow feces was the smallest (10.5 ± 1%). Overall, our data indicated that the composition of the meconium microflora was similar compared with multiple maternal sites including umbilical cord, placenta, colostrum, and amniotic fluid. The umbilical cord microflora seemed to contribute the most to colonization of the fecal microflora of calves. Bacteria with digestive functions such as cellulose decomposition and rumen fermentation were mainly transmitted during the maternal transfer process.
Highlights
The newborn hindgut microbiome plays important metabolic and nutritional functions [1], with one of its main roles being the development of the intestinal barrier [2] and the maturation of the innate immune system in early life [3]
The Shannon diversity index values varied in different groups
Results from other studies [19, 30] can be corroborated by differences in the composition of the microbiome between meconium and cow feces in the present study: compared with those in newborn calves, Proteobacteria levels were reduced in young and adult calves, and Firmicutes and Bacteroides dominated the fecal microbiome [33]. These results indicated that the increasing diversity and richness in hindgut microbiome communities as the animal ages are indicative of progressive establishment of a complex microbiome during early life stages [33]
Summary
The newborn hindgut microbiome plays important metabolic and nutritional functions [1], with one of its main roles being the development of the intestinal barrier [2] and the maturation of the innate immune system in early life [3]. Whether the fetal gut and the maternal uterus harbor a microbiome prior to delivery has long been controversial [10]. In recent years, a microbiota has been detected in amniotic fluid, placenta, and umbilical cord of humans during pregnancy and hindgut of newborn calves prior to colostrum feeding [7, 13, 14]. These data have given rise to the hypothesis of vertical transmission of the microbiome from mothers to offspring [4, 6]. Klein-Jöbstl et al [18] and Alipour et al [19] evaluated the possibility of colonization of the calf fecal microbiota, and concluded that it was maternally related
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