Association Between Tail-Biting and Intestinal Microbiota Composition in Pigs

Nassima Rabhi; Alexandre Thibodeau; Jean-Charles Côté; Nicolas Devillers; Benoit Laplante; Philippe Fravalo; Guillaume Larivière-Gauthier; William P Thériault; Luigi Faucitano; Guy Beauchamp; Sylvain Quessy

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.563762

Association Between Tail-Biting and Intestinal Microbiota Composition in Pigs

Front Vet Sci. 2020 Dec 9:7:563762. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.563762. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Nassima Rabhi^{1

2}, Alexandre Thibodeau^{1

2}, Jean-Charles Côté^{1

2}, Nicolas Devillers³, Benoit Laplante⁴, Philippe Fravalo^{1

2}, Guillaume Larivière-Gauthier^{1

2}, William P Thériault^{1

2}, Luigi Faucitano³, Guy Beauchamp^{1

2}, Sylvain Quessy^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Chaire de Recherche en Salubrité des Viandes - Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles et en Génie du Canada (CRSV-CRSNG), Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada.
² Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie Porcine et Avicole - Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies (CRIPA-FRQNT), Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada.
³ Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
⁴ F. Ménard Inc., Ange-Gardien, QC, Canada.

Abstract

Tail-biting (TB) in pigs is a serious behavioral disorder. It is an important challenge in swine production as it impacts animal welfare and health and the economics and safety of the pork meat supply chain. To prevent TB, approaches including enrichment material and tail docking are proposed but none are optimal. Nutrition appears to be an important factor in TB behavior, perhaps by modulating the intestinal microbiota (IM). Our aim was to assess the association between TB behavior and IM in pigs through comparisons of IM in groups of biter, bitten and non-biter/non-bitten pigs. Each group composed of 12 pigs was formed at the beginning of the growing/finishing phase based on a target behavior analysis centered on TB behavior for the biter group and a score of damages caused to the tail for the bitten group. Blood and fecal samples were collected from each pig during a TB episode, at time 0, t0, and when the TB episode was considered finished, 4 weeks later, at time 1, t1. Serum cortisol level was determined by ELISA and used as an indicator of stress. The pig's fecal microbiota was analyzed from DNA extracted from freshly collected fecal matter using amplicon sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Serum cortisol levels were significantly higher in either the biter or bitten pig groups compared to the negative control group (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01, respectively). The microbiota alpha-diversity was not significantly different between all groups, biter, bitten and negative control. Analyses of beta-diversity, however, revealed a significant difference between either the biter or the bitten group in comparison to the non-biter/non-bitten negative control group in terms of structure and composition of the microbiota. Lactobacillus were significantly more abundant in the negative control group compared to the two other groups (p = 0.001). No significant difference was revealed between the biter and bitten groups. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) confirmed that lactobacilli were more abundant in the negative control group. Our study indicates that TB behavior is associated with the IM composition in pigs.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; behavioral disorder; intestinal microbiota; pig; stress; tail-biting.