Differences in the intestinal microbiota between uninfected piglets and piglets infected with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.

Mei-Zhou Huang,Dong-An Cui,Xiao-Jun Kong,Hui Wang,Sheng-Yi Wang,Jian-Yong Li,Ya-Jun Yang,Xi-Wang Liu,Yogesh S Shouche

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0192992

Mei-Zhou Huang, Dong-An Cui + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192992

Copy DOI

Abstract

Porcine epidemic diarrhea, a disastrous gastrointestinal disease, causes great financial losses due to its high infectivity, morbidity and mortality in suckling piglets despite the development and application of various vaccines. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to explore differences in the intestinal microbiota between uninfected piglets and piglets infected with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). The results revealed that the small intestinal microbiota of suckling piglets infected with PEDV showed low diversity and was dominated by Proteobacteria (49.1%). Additionally, the composition of the small intestinal microbiota of sucking piglets infected with PEDV showed marked differences from that of the uninfected piglets. Some of the taxa showing differences in abundance between uninfected piglets and piglets infected with PEDV were associated with cellular transport and catabolism, energy metabolism, the biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites, and amino acid metabolism as determined through the prediction of microbial function based on the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Therefore, adjusting the intestinal microbiota might be a promising method for the prevention or treatment of PEDV.

Highlights

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a disastrous gastrointestinal disease, causes great financial losses due to its high infectivity, morbidity and mortality in suckling piglets [1,2,3]
The variation of the intestinal microflora infected piglets by porcine epidemic diarrhea virus phylogeny revealed that the 10 most abundant genera of microbiota in the control group were grouped into three clusters (Clusters I, II, and III; Fig 2)
To obtain a taxon composition profile of the small intestinal microbiota, a species classification tree was constructed based on the 10 genera with the highest relative abundances (Fig 3), which accounted for 52.8% of the small intestinal microbiota

Summary

Introduction

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a disastrous gastrointestinal disease, causes great financial losses due to its high infectivity, morbidity and mortality in suckling piglets [1,2,3]. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) rapidly spreads among piglets through the fecal-oral route [5]. Various vaccines have been developed and applied, PED outbreaks still occur in some immunized swine herds [6,7]. The intestinal microbiota is an important barrier against invaders entering via the gastrointestinal route [8]. Many studies have shown that commensal microbiota can prevent pathogenic invasion by competing for receptors and enteric nutrients, stimulating the innate immune system to inhibit pathogens, producing antimicrobial compounds such as bacteriocins, and creating

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion