Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 11;8(9):e75079. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075079. eCollection 2013.
The horse, as a hindgut fermenter, is reliant on its intestinal bacterial population for efficient diet utilisation. However, sudden disturbance of this population can result in severe colic or laminitis, both of which may require euthanasia. This study therefore aimed to determine the temporal stability of the bacterial population of faecal samples from six ponies maintained on a formulated high fibre diet. Bacterial 16S rRNA terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analyses of 10 faecal samples collected from 6 ponies at regular intervals over 72 hour trial periods identified a significant pony-specific profile (P<0.001) with strong stability. Within each pony, a significantly different population was found after 11 weeks on the same diet (P<0.001) and with greater intra-individual similarity. Total short chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentration increased in all ponies, but other changes (such as bacterial population diversity measures, individual major SCFA concentration) were significant and dependent on the individual. This study is the first to report the extent of stability of microbes resident in the intestinal tract as represented with such depth and frequency of faecal sampling. In doing so, this provides a baseline from which future trials can be planned and the extent to which results may be interpreted.
马作为后肠发酵者，依赖于肠道细菌种群来高效利用饮食。然而，这种种群的突然紊乱可能导致严重的腹痛或蹄叶炎，两者都可能需要实施安乐死。因此，本研究旨在确定 6 匹维持高纤维配方饮食的小马粪便样本中细菌种群的时间稳定性。对 6 匹小马在 72 小时试验期内定期采集的 10 份粪便样本进行细菌 16S rRNA 末端限制性片段长度多态性（TRFLP）分析，确定了具有强稳定性的显著小马特异性特征（P<0.001）。在每个小马中，在相同饮食上连续 11 周后，发现了明显不同的种群（P<0.001），且个体内的相似性更高。所有小马的总短链脂肪酸（SCFA）浓度都增加了，但其他变化（如细菌种群多样性测量、个体主要 SCFA 浓度）是显著的，且取决于个体。本研究首次报道了肠道内微生物驻留的稳定性程度，其深度和频率都如此之高。通过这样做，它为未来的试验提供了一个基线，并可以解释结果的程度。
