Establishment of porcine fecal-derived microbial communities to evaluate the impact of livestock feed on gut microbiome.

Sustainable livestock production requires reducing competition for food and feed resources and increasing the utilization of food by-products in livestock feed. This study describes the establishment of an anaerobic batch culture model to simulate pig microbiota and evaluate the effects of a food by-product, wakame seaweed stalks, on microbial communities. We selected one of the nine media to support the growth of a bacterial community most similar in composition and diversity to that observed in pig donor feces. Supplementation with wakame altered the microbial profile and short-chain fatty acid composition in the model, and a similar trajectory was observed in the pig experimental validation. Notably, the presence of wakame increased the abundance of species, which may have been due to cross-feeding with . These results suggest the potential of wakame as a livestock feed capable of modulating the pig microbiome. Collectively, this study highlights the ability to estimate the microbiome changes that occur when pigs are fed a specific feed using an culture model.