Environmental Influences of High-Density Agricultural Animal Operation on Human Forearm Skin Microflora.

Mengfei Peng,Debabrata Biswas

doi:10.3390/microorganisms8101481

Abstract

The human forearm skin microbiome ecosystem contains rich and diverse microbes, which are influenced by environmental exposures. The microbial representatives can be exchanged between human and environment, specifically animals, by which they share certain or similar epidermal microbes. Livestock and poultry are the microbial sources that are associated with the transmission of community-based pathogenic infections. Here, in this study, we proposed investigating the environmental influences introduced by livestock/poultry operations on forearm skin microflora of on-site farm workers. A total of 30 human skin swab samples were collected from 20 animal workers in dairy or integrated farms and 10 healthy volunteer controls. The skin microbiome was 16S metagenomics that were sequenced with Illumina MiSeq system. For skin microbial community analysis, the abundance of major phyla and genera as well as alpha and beta diversities were compared across groups. We identified distinctive microbial compositional patterns on skin of workers in farm with different animal commodities. Workers in integrated farms containing various animals were associated with higher abundances of epidermal Proteobacteria, especially Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter, but lower Actinobacteria, especially Corynebacterium and Propionibacterium. For those workers with frequent dairy cattle operations, their Firmicutes in the forearm skin microbiota were enriched. Furthermore, farm animal operations also reduced Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, as well as modulated the microbial biodiversity in farm workers’ skin microbiome. The alterations of forearm skin microflora in farm workers, influenced by their frequent farm animal operations, may increase their risk in skin infections with unusual pathogens and epidermal diseases.

Highlights

As the largest organ of human body, the skin plays the primary role of physical barrier defending against the penetration of exogenous microorganisms and adverse environmental conditions [1]
Though in general the skin microbial ecosystem was dominated by four major phyla, including Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria, their relative abundances on the forearm skin were varied with farm workers’ animal operations and the types of animals
The relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria in skin swabs that were collected from Upper Marlboro farm, which is an integrated farm and workers are exposed to animals, including beef cattle, sheep, chicken, and duck were 5.18, 2.74, 11.61, and 77.44% (Figure 1B), operations on a variety of farm animals including cow, sheep, chicken, turkey, and pig, were 13.80, 3.63, 31.64, and 33.70% (Figure 1C), respectively

Summary

Introduction

As the largest organ of human body, the skin plays the primary role of physical barrier defending against the penetration of exogenous microorganisms and adverse environmental conditions [1]. Distinctive communities of enormous microorganisms, especially bacterial commensal inhabit on the skin, forms the diverse and complex microbial ecosystem as an epidermal microfloral community [2,3] and it plays an important role for the host. These symbiotic microbes-host relation actively protects the colonization of harmful or unexpected pathogens, induces immunity, and influences lipid metabolism, body odor production, and many other beneficial activity of the human host [4,5]. The constant exposure to a particular environment, for instance, the frequent contact with pets at home or farm animals in agricultural farm, is capable of re-disturbing the homeostatic skin microbiota and further establishing a divergent microbial ecosystem in the exact location and neighbors of the contact skin area [9,10]

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Conclusion