School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
Qinhuangdao Forestry Bureau, Qinhuangdao, China.
PLoS One. 2021 May 11;16(5):e0251512. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251512. eCollection 2021.
Horse botflies have been a threat to the Przewalski's horses in the Kalamaili Nature Reserve in Xinjiang of China since their reintroduction to the original range. As larvae of these parasites could infest the intestine of a horse for months, they could interact with and alter the structure and composition of its intestinal microbiota, affecting adversely its health. Nonetheless, there are no such studies on the rewilded Przewalski's horses yet. For the first time, this study characterizes the composition of the intestinal microbiota of 7 rewilded Przewalski's horses infected severely by Gasterophilus pecorum following and prior to their anthelmintic treatment. Bioinformatics analyses of the sequence data obtained by amplicon high throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes showed that G. pecorum infestation significantly increased the richness of the intestinal microbial community but not its diversity. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were found the dominant phyla as in other animals, and the parasitic infestation decreased the F/B ratio largely by over 50%. Large reduction in relative abundances of the two genera Streptococcus and Lactobacillus observed with G. pecorum infestation suggested possible changes in colic and digestion related conditions of the infected horses. Variations on the relative abundance of the genus groups known to be pathogenic or symbiotic showed that adverse impact of the G. pecorum infestation could be associated with reduction of the symbiotic genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium that are probiotics and able to promote immunity against parasitic infection.
自重新引入到原始栖息地以来，马胃蝇已成为中国新疆卡拉麦里自然保护区内普氏野马的威胁。由于这些寄生虫的幼虫可以在马的肠道中寄生数月，它们可能会与马的肠道微生物群落相互作用并改变其结构和组成，从而对其健康产生不利影响。然而，对于重新引入的普氏野马，目前还没有这样的研究。本研究首次对 7 匹严重感染马胃蝇的重新引入的普氏野马进行了肠道微生物群落组成的研究，这些马在进行驱虫治疗前后均受到感染。通过对细菌 16S rRNA 基因扩增子高通量测序获得的序列数据进行生物信息学分析表明，马胃蝇感染显著增加了肠道微生物群落的丰富度，但没有增加其多样性。厚壁菌门和拟杆菌门是与其他动物一样的主要门，寄生虫感染使 F/B 比大大降低了 50%以上。与马胃蝇感染相关的两个属链球菌和乳杆菌的相对丰度明显减少，这表明感染马的绞痛和消化相关条件可能发生了变化。与已知具有致病性或共生性的属组的相对丰度的变化表明，马胃蝇感染的不利影响可能与共生属乳杆菌和双歧杆菌的减少有关，这些益生菌能够促进对寄生虫感染的免疫。
