Comparison of fecal microbiota of SPF and non-SPF Beagle dogs

Cuilian Yu; Zhongkun Guo; Zhan Lei; Xiaolong Mao; Shumin Chen; Kezhou Wang

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1021371

Comparison of fecal microbiota of SPF and non-SPF Beagle dogs

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Feb 7:10:1021371. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1021371. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cuilian Yu¹, Zhongkun Guo¹, Zhan Lei¹, Xiaolong Mao¹, Shumin Chen², Kezhou Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Laboratory Animal and Shandong Laboratory Animal Center, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China.
² Shandong Provincial Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention (Zoonoses Surveillance Center of Shandong Province), Jinan, China.

Abstract

Microbial colonization of animal intestine impacts host metabolism and immunity. The study was aimed to investigate the diversity of the intestinal microflora in specific pathogen free (SPF) and non-SPF Beagle dogs of different ages by direct sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene. Stool samples were collected from four non-SPF and four SPF healthy Beagle dogs. From a total of 792 analyzed Operation taxonomic units, four predominant bacterial phyla were identified: Firmicutes (75.23%), Actinobacteria (10.98%), Bacteroidetes (9.33%), and Proteobacteria (4.13%). At the genus level, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, and Bifidobacterium were dominated. Among which, Alloprevotella, Prevotella_9, and Faecalibacterium were presented exclusively in non-SPF beagles, with potentially anti-inflammatory capability, which could protect non-SPF beagles from complex microbial environment. The number and diversity of intestinal flora for non-SPF Beagle dogs were the highest at birth and gradually decreased with growth, whereas the results for the SPF beagle samples were the opposite, with the number and diversity of intestinal microbiota gradually increases as beagles grow. In a nutshell, the microbial complexity of the rearing environment can enrich the gut microbiota of beagles, many of which are anti-inflammatory microbiota with the potential to increase the adaptability of the animal to the environment. However, the gut microbiota of SPF beagles was more sensitive to environmental changes than that of non-SPF beagles. This study is of great significance for understanding the bionomics of intestinal microflora in non-SPF and SPF beagles, improving the experimental accuracy in scientific research.

Keywords: Beagle dogs; SPF; alpha diversity; environmental adaptability; fecal microbiota.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Innovation Project of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences (No. 2017YFD050160202), the Shandong Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Plan (No. 2019WS177), and the Shandong Province Pig Industrial Technology System (SDAIT-08-17).