ruminal fermentation and cow-to-mouse fecal transplantations verify the inter-relationship of microbiome and metabolome biomarkers: potential to promote health in dairy cows.

INTRODUCTION

There are differences in the gut microbiome and metabolome when the host undergoes different physical or pathological conditions. However, the inter-relationship of microbiome and metabolome biomarkers to potentially promote the health of dairy cows needs to be studied. Further, the development of next-generation probiotics for dairy cattle health promotion has not been demonstrated.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we identified the microbiome and metabolome biomarkers associated with healthy cows.

METHODS

We analyzed the relationships of the ruminal microorganism profile and metabolites between healthy and mastitis lactating dairy cows. The roles of bacterial biomarker were further verified by in vitro fermentation and cow-to-mouse fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).

RESULTS

Two species, and subsp. , and six rumen metabolites were positively correlated with healthy cows by Spearman's correlation analysis. Through in vitro ruminal fermentation, inoculating and subsp. showed the upregulation of the levels of putrescine, xanthurenic acid, and pyridoxal in the mastitis ruminal fluid, which confirmed the inter-relationships between these microbiota and metabolites associated with healthy cows. Further, we verified the role of and subsp. in promoting health by FMT. The administration of and subsp. reduced the death rate and recovered the bodyweight loss of germ-free mice caused by FMT mastitis feces.

DISCUSSION

We provided evidence that the bacterial biomarkers alter downstream metabolites. This could indirectly indicate that the two bacterial biomarkers have the potential to be used as next-generation probiotics for dairy cattle, although it needs more evidence to support our hypothesis. Two species, and subsp. , with three metabolites, putrescine, xanthurenic acid, and pyridoxal, identified in the ruminal fluid, may point to a new health-promoting and disease-preventing approach for dairy cattle.